To Succeed... Just Let Go: Recent Episodes
Willie Horton
Learn how to change how you think in this heavy-duty light-hearted show where I’ll teach you how to start living the kind of life you’d really love - I’ve been teaching my clients just that since 1996... you’ll meet some of them on the show. I’m Willie Horton and I’m a psychologist - originally from Dublin Ireland, I live the kind of life I love… in the French Alps. Each week we’ll be exploring what I’ve been exploring in my weekly videos since 2008… but in the kind of easy detail that will make sure you start taking action straight away. The really cool news is: what you need to do to change you life is breathtakingly simple - oooh and it’s all validated by the very latest in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. You can really get involved too - we can start talking in my private Facebook Group called… To Succeed… Just Let Go - just let go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/100414346687833 To find out more about me go to: https://www.willie-horton.com
This week’s podcast answers a need that a number of listeners have expressed to me - you (or, at least, they!) have asked to hear more about what owners of The Psychology of Success Online Program have to say about how their lives have been transformed by investing in themselves.
And, by investing in themselves, first of all, I mean investing time and energy in doing what’s right and, obviously, not doing what’s wrong!
The most important investment you can make in life is to invest yourself in the here and now. If you don’t and most people don’t, what kind of a return on investment do you think you’re going to get from investing nothing at all?
Midway through this episode, I make what I believe to be a crucial point:
All the good things in life that you would love to have - and more - come to you as a result of you being present in pivotal “nows” in your life. But you can’t be present in pivotal nows in your life if you’re not present in this one. How you turn up to this here and now determines how you will turn up to the next one.
But, let me quote from an Online Program Owner who puts the whole idea of turning up to the here and now so much better than I can:
“Living in the here and now has a ripple effect that impacts every aspect of my life”.
While we’re at it, let’s quote another Online Program Owner who sums up what life is all about:
“The main goal: Living Here and Now, Being Present, Enjoying Every Single Moment”
When you do that, life happens or, as we’ve said on many occasions here, again quoting Online Program Owners, “it just happens” and it’s effortless.
This flow just happens when you turn up and experience reality and all that that has to offer. It’s only your thinking mind has a grip on our sense of reality - loosen that grip…
It’s time to wake up. And to encourage you to do just that, I have enumerated, in this episode, some of the more debilitating consequences of… being normal.
We’re exploring mental health, physical health, disease, illness and untimely death - all by your own hand or, should I say, all as a result of the automatic way the thinking mind is, actually, overthinking you to death.
Of course, you’re not aware of any of this because it’s normal, it’s everyday, it is how your “life”, if that’s what you can call it, is. And, you’re not alone - it’s how everyone around you is, on autopilot, surviving from one routine, mundane day to the next.
And nothing will change until you begin to become aware.
With that it mind, I’ve put together a series of questions, about half way through this episode, that you can answer straight away - you won’t even have to think about the answers, your automatic mind will do that for you!!
And, then, we get into transformation. Yes, I explain how you can transform your life starting immediately after listening to this episode.
Armed with an insight into what you need to do to transform your life, armed with an understanding of the importance of turning up to your life in the here and now, we then highlight the importance of this here and now and what you’re supposed to be doing in this here and now regardless of the often apparent insignificance of what’s going on in this here and now or, indeed, the task in hand.
So, take a half an hour to listen. It might be the last time you see yourself as you think you are.
The title of this episode would suggest that we’ve wandered into the world of spirituality, which we have, by the way! In fact, we’ve been paddling in that pool for most of this podcast’s five-plus years, it’s just that it wasn’t really explicit.
All that said, this week’s episode is entirely practical, focused, as it is in the end, on not wasting your time or energy on doing the wrong things and, instead, doing only what needs to be done, in the right way, at the right time, effortlessly, to move your live in the most desirable of directions.
As you’ll discover, this all actually happens effortlessly when you discover your spirit, soul and essence, when you encounter the so-called “Real You”.
When you do that, when you flow, well, everything flows.
And that means that what’s best for you flows, what’s best for you and those around you and, indeed, the world at large.
So, we get to the heart of the matter, so to speak. We discover where and how you’ll encounter the flow that is your soul, your essence. We discover how to do just that and how, in doing just that, in allowing yourself flow, you enable yourself flow, without having to deliberately do so - it comes naturally.
But, of course, it would come naturally, wouldn’t it, when you discover your true nature.
As it is within, so it is without - when we take charge of our inner world, we change our outer world, we transform our experience of everyday life.
And that is what this episode is all about - the undoubted and very real challenges that we all encounter every day.
What good is my saying that all good things fall into your lap when we let go of the want and trying that accompanies normal people’s efforts to change their life? What good is my talking about effortlessness if what you’re experiencing or feeling today is less than you would expect of life?
Well, when I talk about effortlessness, when I talk about transformation, I talk about the reality of what is not just possible but inevitable when we restructure our brains and enable our minds act in a new way.
But, even at that, we still have to deal with the behaviour or should I say the misbehaviour of normal crazy people.
That’s why we’re exploring health and fitness - an everyday challenge for all too many - and the misery that is all too often caused by the misbehaviour of those we encounter in our everyday life, particularly those often closest to us.
I hope this episode will help you get your head around the inevitability of everyday challenges but, more to the point, the fact that labouring under the weight of those everyday challenges is most definitely not inevitable.
We can rise above the so-called slings and arrows and, in doing so, enable those around us, perhaps, raise their game too.
But the key to all of this is, as always, your taking charge of your own state of mind.
Synchronicities are the signposts that lead us forward and, if you’ve been listening for the last few weeks, you’ll know that moving forward is something of a current theme here.
However, normally, synchronicities are something of a hit and miss affair and, if we were to wait on the next one or two, we could be waiting some time. In any event, synchronicities tend to happen when least expected - something that we explore anecdotally in this episode..
And, yet, synchronicity is happening all the time - you just have to awake, alert, tuned in with eyes and heart wide-open to spot this everyday phenomenon.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that big shifts will happen in your life everyday but, then again, synchronicities come in all shapes and sizes and, as we said in this podcast a few weeks ago, our lives don’t leap forward in major headlines, our lives change in the small print of the heres and nows of everyday life.
So, what can we do to encourage everyday synchronicity? How can we encounter everyday synchronicity if they tend to occur when least expected?
We’ll answer the second one first because it’s easy… expect the unexpected - by turning up to the here and now you’ll be tuned in enough to notice the unexpected for what it really is.
More to the point, if synchronicity “just happens” (a phrase you’ll often have heard me use), what can we do to encourage the “process” - can we even play a part in it?
The answer to these questions is the same as the first one. When we turn up to the here and now, when we’re present, our presence attracts synchronicity into our moment-to-moment experience of life.
Put another way, when we’re in Flow, we co-create synchronicity in harmony with the always responsive Universal Flow.
That’s what this episode is all about and, as always, as you listen you’ll pick up the simple things that you need to do to create and attract the synchronicities that will start changing your life… today.
What got you to where you are will not get you to where you could go.
I didn't say get you to "where you want" because few people truly know what they want, fewer know how to get it and most think that what they want will never happen because... of there they are!
You don't need to know what you want, you need to know where you are.
Everything starts in the here and now. And that means that, to move forward, you need to discard the past: past mistakes, past "experience", past "learning", past (mis)behaviour.
Your future starts here and now. You don't need to know or even have a clue what that future might look like other than assuming - and it is a very valid assumption indeed - that the future will be what's best for you, wonderful, effortless, a revelation, something unimaginable to your habitual way of thinking.
Now, there's a promise if ever there were one.
But I can go one better because, in this episode, we have the step-by-step instructions on how to move forward in your life, for the best, starting... NOW.
You need to listen to this one!
From being lost in thought and preoccupied, to effortlessness to manifestation, this episode takes you on an adventure from the ordinary to the extraordinary - an adventure that you can choose to take at any moment, at every moment.
We explore how to discover your true nature and how that true nature enables you live like you mean it, moment-to-moment, without you having to deliberately decide to ensure that you're present - your newly renewed neural pathways and connections will do it for you.
We revisit - for probably the 253rd time! - the power of meditation: the one choice that you actually need to make every day or almost every day.
And we even get into manifestation, debunking the normal understanding of what is considered a phenomenon but which is, in fact, the logical outcome of being present, knowing what's going on, being in the right place and the right time and doing the right things, in the right way, effortlessly.
Right action will open the floodgates for you.
We're being, as always, entirely practical in this episode - we're exploring how to make the right impression and change your life.
And that change is immediate - no five-year plans required!
And that change is effortless - all that is required for you to live your "best" life is to turn up to it, in the here and now.
We cover career, parenting, relationships, self-love, happiness, calm and joy in just over thirty minutes - something of an achievement! Or, perhaps, not - when you realise how, rather than complicating your life through thinking about it, you just live it, live the moment.
We cover opportunity, synchronicity, presence and attraction - the law of attraction, if you will - we cover how to allow all that's best for you happen.
In other words, you don't go looking for it, what's best find you. Seek and you won't find!!
And, as always, we've a couple of lovely little stories to illustrate how all this works in everyday practice.
Enjoy.
Don't go changing! Don't plan forward! Just turn up to your life in the here and now.
In this life of yours, you don’t need to know where you’re going, you need to know where you are!
That's the simple, key and life-changing message in this episode. And there's a whole heap of science to confirm what happens to you and for you when you turn up to the here and now.
What happens to you? The very shape and structure of your brain changes - you enable your subcortical brain operate in an effortless way that makes it fully fit for purpose in this 21st century.
What happens for you? The short answer... all that's best.
In this episode, I provide you with the simple steps to enable all this happen to and for you in a way that your thinking mind would discredit as being far too simple, unlikely to work and unrealistic.
But this episode deals with these normal crazy booby traps too.
Truth is, in following these steps, you'll feel your life changing straight away.
Your life can change in a moment - a moment otherwise known as "the here and now".
And, yet, very few people on this planet turn up to the here and now or even know how to do that.
And that turns out to be the most important thing that you need to do in your life today. If you don't, you're not living, you're merely existing. And, when we merely exist, nothing ever changes.
And, I assume, as we all do, that you want change in your life - big change, small change, change some aspect of your life or, to put it more simply, we'd all like to be a bit happier, more successful, healthier, fitter - you name it.
So, in this episode - the 250th Episode of To Succeed... Just Let Go - I provide you with step-by-step practical tips that you can put into practice even as you listen to this episode.
Step-by-step effortless little actions that will... change your life in this here and now.
Yes, life doesn't have to be a struggle, regardless of what you think about what's actually going on in your life right now or your previous "failures".
Yes, you can allow what's best for you come about in your life by allowing yourself be. A lot of "allowing" going on here. And this is the secret to a wonderful life.
We're constantly plagued by one of our thinking mind's greatest drawbacks... wanting.
So, for starters in this episode, we explore the fundamentals of want, starting with the most fundamental want of all... wanting to be wanted! After all, it's nice to be liked, particularly when, using our normal thinking mind normally, we may not like ourselves all that much.
We explore comparative want - wanting what others have, wanting what we think makes those others look more happy and successful that we think we are ourselves.
We inevitably explore jealousy and the roots of comparative thinking and, in the end, we realise that it is thinking itself that is the root of all our problems or, should I say, perceived problems.
We'd be better off not thinking at all! We'd be better of... letting ourselves be.
And that's where this episode will take you.
You have a choice - you can either use your mind normally and, in the process, allow your normal thinking mind abuse you or...
You can take charge of your inner world and transform your outer world and, while you're at it, the lives of those around you and, as if that weren't wonderful enough, add your little bit of joy and calm to a world that badly needs it.
In this episode, we explore how to do that in the simplest and straightforward way by using something that you're already doing... breathing.
We explore why this is so important and, in doing so, we begin not only to understand the consequences but to actually experience them in terms of what happens in our daily lives, how we behave moment-to-moment and how we meet and rise to the occasion when confronted by life's everyday challenges - small, medium and large.
But, as always, there's more to it than that. Not only is this about looking after yourself and living the life that's best for you, it's actually a matter of life and death... yours.
Words have power - we explore that a little at the outset in this episode.
But that's only a prelude to a flow of information and insight that, I hope, will allow you awaken, know yourself, experience your inner power and, then, allow it to be unleashed on a waiting world, starting with what you might consider to be your own "little world".
There's a lot of "allowing" going on here. Truth is, we don't have to do an awful lot to change our world and, as we explore in this episode, this change can take place in the twinkling of an eye.
In fact, you could say, we have to do less.
We only need do the important stuff (effortlessly), informed as to what is important by... simply turning up to the here and now.
Now, this is a matter of life and death - your turning up to your life will enable you start living like you mean it; it will impact those you love and those around you (including those who you think you certainly do not love!) and it will impact the world at large.
Stop being part of the problem - this chaotic world in which we exist - and start being the solution... effortlessly. It means a lot.
Yes, the gift is your's to give - you can give yourself everything your heart desires - it simply depends on a couple of fundamental choices that you need to make.
In this episode, we explore one of life's burning questions: What Do You Want Out of Life?
But we explore it in a way that might surprise you. In doing so, you'll discover, that all that's best in life is sitting right in front of you, before your very eyes. All you have to do is come to your senses to experience that kind of everyday life you'd like to have... every day.
This isn't a trick. Neither is it a nice idea or wishful thinking. And it's as simple as breathing in and out.
In short, everything that's best for you in life depends on how you turn up to your life. It's kinda obvious when it's put that way, isn't it?
I could put it even more simply: your future depends on how you turn up to the present.
It's all around us - we may even be a player in the normal crazy game. Yes, inappropriate behaviour abounds and is, as we speak, ruining lives.
All reaction is inappropriate because all reaction is automatic and defensive - that's how the normal mind works and that's what we're seeing around us everywhere we look.
To make this world a better place - and, by that I mean, to make your life less stressful and, perhaps, even joyful - you need to deal appropriately with inappropriate behaviour.
That is what this episode is about. This episode explains exactly how to do what is required, what is best because, obviously, reacting to inappropriate behaviour is, actually, just more inappropriate behaviour!
To explore this, I'm looking at one of the most potentially fraught areas of our everyday interactions with others... family! How do you deal with the madness that is so prevalent in the family dynamic? Well, this episode explores both its origins and the appropriate required action.
Hope it spurs you into do what needs to be done, saying what needs to be said and, as a result, making this world a better place.
We're making lifestyle choices all the time - the kind of choices that amount to a matter of life and death... your's.
We're not aware of this because we do it automatically. And, because we do it automatically, not only are we "blissfully" unaware, we're also regularly making the wrong choices.
In this episode, we explore, for starters, the very real and negative implications of "living" this way - of living a shorter and lesser life than needs be or, indeed, should be.
But that's only as a precursor to our exploring making the right lifestyle choices - the kind of choices that will enhance your experience of life straight away, the kind of choices that lead to the kind of results that you'd love to achieve.
Or, should I say, the kind of choice... singular.
Get one choice right and everything cascades into an experience of you and of your life that you wouldn't have thought possible.
No, we're not talking about selfishness and greed in this episode! In fact, we're talking about the exact opposite - the one thing that you, that anyone, can do for the good of everyone, starting with the most important person in your life... you.
Step-by-step, throughout the day, instructions are provided in this episode - the steps that we all must take to start the day like we mean it and to keep ourselves sane throughout the day, in the face of the everyday madness all around us.
Most importantly, we explore the absolute necessity of taking charge and putting your best foot forward, regardless of the circumstances.
And, when you do, you'll discover a world to which the vast majority of people are blind - blinded by their own thoughts and perceptions. You will discover a world where all is well and life can be fully and unreservedly enjoyed.
Because enjoying yourself is what life's all about.
We're exploring so-called emotions in this episode - "so-called" because most emotions are simply and destructively the product of thought.
Yes the automated thoughts that enable us make it through the day are the self-same automated thoughts that make us think that we're angry, fearful, anxious, lonely... you name it, it's all thought-induced.
So, in this episode, we explore action not reaction, considered response not emotional overload, doing what needs to be done, not throwing fuel on the everyday fires of this normal crazy everyday world of ours.
Using a couple of really simply everyday practical examples, this episode explains how the normal mind sets us up for everyday disaster, so everyday that we think that it's OK, that is an acceptable price to pay for making it through the day.
Conversely, I explain why you're here, what everyday life is really all about and, most importantly, how to experience it, how to do the right thing effortlessly and how to enjoy yourself in the process.
All this flows when you... control your emotions.
All is well. You'll have heard me repeat that on many occasions, you'll have heard that from the Buddha, the Bible, Anthony deMello, not to mention all the modern "gurus"!
But look at the world. Look at your everyday life. Is all really well? Or are we fooling ourselves with the worst form of wishful thinking when we endeavour to convince ourselves that all is well?
Well! That's what we explore in this episode: the scientific fact, as confirmed by neuroscience, that a brain in flow creates a reality where all is, in actual reality, flowing effortlessly, where all is, actually well.
We explain and explore how, in the moment, not only is it all good, it provides us with an opportunity to enjoy and be excited by how we play our part in all being well.
And what a central part that is!
Obviously, playing your part is central to your creating an everyday experience of flowing life, where all is actually well. But you've a central role in doing the same for those around you, those you love, the bully at work, the angry people (that we inevitably encounter every day), the world at large.
And, boy, does the world at large need it.
This episode finishes with the words "you are the creator, go and create all that's best" - or words to that effect!!
What we need is encouragement to start doing and keep doing what we need to do to move ourselves forward.
What we don't need is courage - once you stop thinking that "Little Old Me" can't take the required actions to move your life forward, neither courage nor bravery is required - to quote Nike, you just do it - what it happens to be.
And you do it effortlessly - that's one of the key messages to emerge from this week's episode - because, whilst our normal way of thinking evolved in a way that frustrates our so-called best efforts, you will find that, freed from that normal way of thinking, you, again to quote Nike, just do it.
So, this episode provides you with the instructions for experiencing all of this good stuff, in the here and now, where your life is actually lived.
You've have the instructions for fulfilling one of life's great purposes - to live it! To live it like you mean it and enjoy yourself in the process.
Worth 30mins of your time!
Yes, the title's a giveaway - this episode provides you with the simple instructions to achieve whatever you want this year or, even better, what's best for you - which, more often than not, is not the same thing!
We're talking, health, wealth, success, happiness, peace of mind, fitness, weight (there are some specific instructions in relation to weight loss), business, career, relationships, parenting.
All this in one episode?
Yes, because the solution to everything in life boils down to you living your's. Simple.
So, if you think you're stuck, that the new year will a repeat performance, that you're stressed, anxious or frustrated - the simple instructions in this episode will deal with all that, effortlessly.
If you think that you don't know what you want, if you haven't a clue what your "life's purpose" is, or what even your intentions might be... the instructions deal with this apparent issues too.
And, if you think that you've to go back and revisit your past or undergo some form of therapy to understand where you think you are or how you got here, well this episode deals with that too.
As I said... all in one episode!
It's the year end and the start of a new year. All of which is actually irrelevant because any now is a new and unique moment where anything and everything can happen, where we create and recreate ourselves and our lives, our everyday lives.
So, in this episode, we have explicit instructions as to what you need to do to catapult yourself into the life that is best for you.
To fire that catapult, you need to pull back! Pull back from everything that you think you know about yourself and how the world works.
You need to completely let go of wishing, hoping, wanting, planning, budgeting - all the things that we do when we use the mind that nature intended.
Here, we're moving on from our evolutionary stand-point - we're no longer standing still, we're catapulting.
So, if you're letting go of all the tools that we normally think will help us achieve our goals and objectives, what are we going to do instead?
As I said, this episode has explicit instructions!
This episode is crammed with advice, suggestions and recommendations starting with - something that I haven't done in this podcast before - a load of reading recommendations.
And, after all my recommendations, I then advise you... not to read them!
Why? All the books in the world, all the science in the world doesn't matter - they're not going to change your life or your experience of it. You're the one from where change emanates.
So you start immersing yourself in all this material after you've taken your first steps on the road to awareness, self-awareness and self-discovery.
Otherwise, all your reading and study will be akin to browsing holiday websites, marvelling in the beauty and excitement of all the holiday destinations and, then, not buying a ticket and never even going outside the front door of your own little automated thinking mind.
And that's where the real advice comes in - but you're going to have to go through this episode from start to finish. And, right now, in this downtime between Christmas and the New Year, you know what? You have the time - use it wisely.
In this episode, we're exploring the sure fire things that will hold you back from getting what you want... trying and wanting.
Of course, both trying and wanting are, as we explore, thinking mind activities and, as such, are bound to throw a spanner in your works!
That's why we get into the detail of how to get the one real road-block to your happiness and success out of your way - your automatic way of thinking.
Along the way, we touch on the limited impression we have of ourselves in general, how we think that "Little Old Me" won't amount to much and will never scale the heights of the kind of life that we'd love to have, how, in fact, deep down, we probably think that we wouldn't deserve any of that good stuff anyway.
All nonsense. We were put here to live life and live it the full. But that's not going to happen until you get your thinking mind out of way. Once you do, you're going to be very surprised or even amazed.
We're exploring how our mind provides us with all the insight and inspiration that we need when it is liberated from the drag of automated, repetitive, ruminative everyday useless, toxic thought.
Whether it's while we sleep (that's why, if you have in important decision to make, you should always "sleep on it") or when we're in Flow (that's why we really do need to cultivate our experience of Flow in our everyday life), our intuitive mind, the real you knows everything that you need to know and do to create the kind of life that is best for you - beyond what you think you want.
And, until you stop using your mind on Autopilot (where, in fact your mind is actually abusing you!), you'll never know that you know.
So, we're taking a dive into the world of cognitive psychology, neuroscience (in particular in this episode) and even quantum physics and bio-electricity and we unwrap an understanding of how the world really works that will... change your world.
This week we're exploring personal relationships - from the one-to-one relationship we have or would like to have with our nearest and dearest to the often fraught relationships between parent and child, whether you're on or the other!
We're exploring relationship dynamics at the psychological level, whilst taking an all-important detour into the realms of quantum physics, bio-mechanics and bio-electricity.
But, most of all, we're looking at what makes a beautiful relationship and how your relationships can blossom and rise to levels that your thinking mind couldn't even begin to imagine.
In such relationships, everyone's a winner, the joy is spread and, for starters, your lttle world is a better place.
And the world at large needs that.
Today we're teasing out what I mean when I say that we're at our best when we're not thinking.
Are we saying that we need to stop all thinking? What are different kinds of thinking? And can we think clearly when we're using our minds normally?
The answer to that last question above is a resounding "No" - and that's why we need to tease things out in this episode!
But we go further, we explore the nature of belief and what beliefs really are - an important exploration given that what we believe about ourselves, generally speaking, holds us back.
And we explore knowing - now that's where the real action is. And I mean action as distinct from reaction!
If you're using your mind normally, you really haven't got the first clue about what's actually going on.
You've no idea who you really are and you certainly have no inkling of what you could achieve or what's even possible and how easy, effortless, it could all be. If you're using your mind normally.
Now - and I actually mean right now - there is a different way. But, in order to encourage you to consider this other way, this episode explores, in psychological an neurological detail, how your mind is playing tricks on you and how, in the process, you're not living your own life.
Now there's no point in being sad, upset or annoyed about any of this - it's simply the human condition. But there definitely is a point in shaking things up, waking up and experiencing life as it really is and creating the kind of life you would really move.
So, let's start with "habituation" and "categorisation" as we delve into the bag of nasty tricks that the normal crazy mind plays on us...
As someone said to me a couple of days ago, "It's been far too long since you recounted a Normal Crazy People Story to us!" - they used to be a regular Thursday morning feature!!
So, this week, we start with a little adventure into what passes for the real world but is, in fact, a million miles removed.
But the stories with which this episode starts are told for a reason... we all tell ourselves stories. And, worse, generally speaking, we all believe the stories that we tell ourselves.
We embellish, we exaggerate, we concoct and create, we downright lie.
Does that make us all liars? Well, that's actually one of the things that we explore in this episode.
But, more to the point, we explore beyond the stories. We explore the real world and the reality of who you really are.
Better than that, we explore how you can allow the power within present itself to you and your world... today.
It's not some catchy title that I've simply slapped on this week's episode - it is a well-researched scientifically validated phenomenon... people in flow have more time than the rest of us.
More time to do just what they need to do, in just the right way, with little or no effort.
And the wonderful thing is that any of us - and that includes you - can experience this phenomenon and, like most phenomenon, it is phenomenal!!
However, using your mind that way you have been using it will never allow you experience this so-called Flow - you have to come to terms with who you really are and, then, allow yourself slow down... to speed up.
What do I mean by "coming to terms" with yourself? Well, I could have called this episode "War and Peace" - because, if you're not at peace with yourself and who you really are, you'll be at war with everyone else, raging against the world.
That's why, in this episode, I make the explicit suggestion that, to enable yourself experience the bending of time when in flow, you deliberately slow yourself down.
As you'll discover as you work your way through this episode - aided and abetted by real-life stories, when we slow down, we speed up...
How many times have I heard "Oh, I couldn't do that"; "I could never say that"; "What would people think of me if I actually did that?"
Basically, we all think that "Little Old Me" is not up to it. And, if we think that, we'd be right - on a variety of fronts.
First of all, if you think that something is unrealistic it is! If you think you can't, you won't.
More importantly, regardless of what you think "Little Old You" cannot and will not change your life or any aspect of it. "Little Old You" is designed to maintain the status quo.
On top of all that, if all that weren't bad enough, "Little Old You" is old indeed - decades old. "Little Old You" comes from a foreign land... the dim and distant past.
"Little Old You" has no place in your life here today because "Little Old You" is not you, not who you really are, not by a million miles.
Are you in a comfort zone? How comfortable is your comfort zone? How uncomfortable would you feel if you had to step out of your comfort zone to do something - that you probably know you need to do - that, you think, requires a little but of courage?
The normal mind is stuck in an all too uncomfortable place which it thinks is OK because most people are in the same boat! That's why so many people tell me that they feel stuck... they are.
Or they think that they are - it's only our thoughts that tie us up and gag us, our thoughts that lock us in a place that, in reality, doesn't even exist.
So, in this episode, we're talking about the one and only step that you need to take to step out of your comfort zone into a world that the thinking mind wouldn't recognise.
It's called The Real World and, not only is it where the action really is, it's where you'll discover who you really are and experience the kind of life that could only be described as ideal.
And, another important point... we actually explore what I describe as "The Circle of Encouragement" in this episode. Worth a listen.
First of all, a heads up - this Episode coincides with the launch of a series of Free Online Events that I'm hosting, starting Monday September 8th.
Sign up is now open - you can do that in the link in your podcast player.
And, if you're listening after the 8th., the whole series of events, video-based, live Zooms (available on playback) and downloads will be available online until September 18th.
OK - why is this week's Episode called Yes You Can? Because most people are constantly telling themselves... No You Can't!
You can achieve anything to which you set yout mind - this episode explains how to go about that - the whole "process" is summarised in this episode.
It starts with letting go of your "mental presets" - the stuff that tells you "No You Can't" - explains how to detach from everything that you thought you knew about yourself and how the world works.
When you do that, you let yourself loose. And, when that happens, the sky is no longer the limit!
Worth a listen and a sign up.
The short answer to the question posed in the title of this week's episode is... "No"! But, like everything else in life, there's a longer answer - a longer one but a simple one.
This episode explores how to get what's best for you in life, starting right away - not what you want, not what you think you want, not what you've been struggling to achieve or do in or with your life... what's best for you.
And there's a world of difference.
As we explore here, we're leaving the world of self-defeating thought behind: no more "unreasonable", "unrealistic", "undeserving", "unworthy". No more holding yourself back.
You must remember that your mind or, more precisely, your brain, was designed to actually hold you back. Now, you're going to let go.
Why do you think this Podcast is called "To Succeed... Just Let Go".
Yes, this episode hasn't just got a checklist - it has an ideal checklist for your ideal life. A shopping list, if you will!
But that's not what this episode is about!!
We're going back to basics to remind ourselves of the importance, primary importance of what we all must do everyday so that everything on the checklist "falls into our lap".
What's that? Meditate. I know, you may be sick hearing it and you will be sick if you don't do it!
Here, I am emphasising the compelling reasons why we meditate and what happens if we don't - they are, literally, worlds apart.
Which world do you choose to live in? Buried in your own head or free-flowing in a world where all ideal things come to those who turn up?
After the reaction that I received to last week's episode, we're continuing our journey into the wonders of synchronicity or, in fact, the everyday nature of synchronicity when...
When what? How do we create synchronicity rather than hang around waiting for it to happen?
What is the secret to experiencing regularly occurring life-changing moments?
This episode, once again using my own personal experiences, provides the answer to these questions.
As a result, even though I've used my personal adventures to illustrate this and the last episode, it means that you now have the couple of steps that we all can take to transform the ordinary of everyday life into the extraordinary.
In short, discover exactly how the so-called Law of Attraction works in practice.
Many people have asked me to talk about my own experience of synchronicity or, should I say, the many synchronicities that I have experienced and acted upon and how they have been turning points in my life and, indeed, the lives of my loved ones.
So, this episode is full or examples of how synchronicity works in practice and what we have to do to facilitate their flow.
One of the key things that we explore is the need to express our intentions - we also explore the caveats that go with that!
And, obviously and very importantly, we get into the detail of how we must act when presented with a synchronicity.
Above all, when we're in flow, synchronicities flow - often one after another in quick succession.
Time to set a few minutes aside to discover how you could do the little that it takes to allow your own flow change your life.
Yes, you have a heat-seeking missile at your disposal - all you have to do is allow your intuitive self point it in the right direction and... it will deliver what's best for you.
Perhaps I should have actually called this episode "How to Get What's Best for You" because that is exactly what it is about - step-by-step.
Actually, there are only two steps.
You may have heard me refer to what I call (and what my Program Owners know as) the "Two-Piece Jigsaw" - that's what we're talking about.
And we're not talking about what you want, we're talking about something far more exciting - what is best for you.
Because you deserve it, you're worth it, you are the most important person in your life. And, when you know that, when you can feel it, you can become so tuned in and present that you transmit your best intentions for yourself out into the responsive universe and the responsive universe does what it does best... delivers.
Transmission and reception - how to live the moment, starting today, like you mean it.
There is precious little benefit in being totally focused in the quiet of your own private space first thing in the morning, if you're all over the place within a few minutes of encountering the inevitable... a normal crazy person!
So, this week's episode delivers precisely what the title promises.
We're walking through the day, one step at a time, from the moment you awaken to the time your head hits the pillow again last thing at night - with loads of practical little things that you can do that will lead to great changes in your everyday life straight away.
And, more importantly, will set you off on the trajectory that is best for the life that you'd love to live.
Listen, learn and put into practice right now - because your life is lived in nows.
Well, now... if you're not, for example, already a client or an online program owner, this episode could be the start of something new - what's been described as the "Deep Joy" of your life, right here, right now - regardless of what's going on around you.
A big promise? Yes, it is and, yes it is a promise. But it's not a guarantee - you've to make the little choice or two that I suggest in this episode.
Yes, we'll dance around how life can be a pain in the backside for so many people - if they're that way inclined or minded. Yes, we'll explore frustration, annoyance, anger and how many people that their lives are "stuck" (they're actually circling the plug hole!).
But this episode of peppered with anecdotes of people who know different - through the experience of simply turning up to their own lives.
So, are you ready for a little adventure?
OK, the title sounds a little bit like a well-known song - but so what, the world's a different place, you're a different person, when you want for nothing.
And, truth is, when you're "in the zone", you do want for nothing, you don't have a care in the world, all is well.
What a different world we'd live in if enough of us were in that state of mind because state of mind it is.
This episode explores, using Online Program Owners' personal experiences as evidence, how life changes, transforms beyond recognition, when we develop our ability to choose the state of mind that creates peace of mind, presence and freedom from desire.
And, whilst this episode starts by asking you "What do you want?", we're going way beyond want and need in this exploration of how a mind-without-want will allow all that is best simply flow into your life.
That's the world of difference we're talking about.
Being anywhere other than here and now means that you're missing your life.
Thinking that you need to go back to the past to figure out how you've got to where you are or who you are (or could be) is, therefore, a waste of your time.
Or much, much worse - revisiting the past amounts to reliving the past and enabling your past weigh more heavily on your present.
The past is a foreign country and you do not want to go there.
So is the future! People think that they need to plan the future. But planning involves thinking and thinking inevitably leads to an idea of the future that will fall far short of what it might be were you to simply turn up to the here and now.
We create our lives in the moment. If we're thinking, we create a shabby version and put up with it, when, of course, we shouldn't.
We create our lives in the moment. If we're present - and, as a result, not thinking, we experience peace of mind and the ability to just do the right thing and we create a platform for the nows to come, starting with the next one.
If you want to live your life to the full, turn up to now.
This is an episode full of practical tips - quick tips that you can start putting into practice today - that will enable you immediately experience happiness, peace of mind and what one of my Online Program Owners calls "Deep Joy".
I present you with a choice: do you want to be happy or would you prefer worry, anxiety and stress? Do you want to live your life properly, like you mean it, in the moment or do you want to be buried in the world of thought?
No brainers! Or, as we explore, you need to use parts of the brain that nature (evolution) didn't intend that you use!!!!
Enough of that - there are four or five really practical tips in this episode and, perhaps, one tip to which I allude but which we will need to come back to... it relates to whether or not you need goals and objectives. Now... there's a thought!
Or, more importantly, the things that we can do for ourselves!
In this episode, by way of introduction, we explore the madness of the normal human condition, as a result of which, we impede ourselves, constrain ourselves, belittle ourselves and, indeed, do ourselves actual physical harm.
But, if you're the problem, you are also the solution. Or, to put it another way, if your thoughts are the problem, stop paying them attention. As simple as that.
Yes, the things that we can do for ourselves are far easier - to the point of effortless - far simpler and far more effective than all the stuff that we automatically and habitually do to ourselves.
In this episode, you learn how to do the best for you.
One more thing. I mention a short YouTube video in this episode - how to get a good night's sleep (which is very important for your short-, medium- and long-term wellbeing) - here's that link:
https://youtu.be/jf0qLyiYZy0?si=XWR43A6kap1M_8Yg
What? You don't have an everyday life?
That's right and that's what this episode explores.
Nothing is as it seems to the thinking mind: from anger to stress, to jealousy to, well the very reality of the here and now.
As a result, we're normally caught in a reactionary loop where things go from bad to worse and "not so bad" is about as good as it gets.
Until you stop reacting. Yes, that is what this episode is about.
So, what strategies do you need to adopt? Short answer... none.
You just need to (re)develop your ability to turn up to the here and now. Once you turn up for real, everything changes.
And the wonderful thing is that you'll discover results immediately, in the most unlikely of places.
You'll learn exactly how to set your mind to achieve your goals, objectives, dreams and "perfect moments" in this episode.
And, once your mind is set, what you have to do to get there becomes effortless.
As you'll discover, you don't need to know what you need to do, it will become obvious what's best to do as you effortlessly dance through each day, like a ballerina, without putting a foot wrong.
The whole process rests on your expectations and, in this episode, we explain exactly what expectation actually is... and how to give yourself new expectations, great expectations.
And, I should mention, because so many people asked me to talk about it, one of those expectations might be that you lose weight... we talk about that too - but not as much as you might expect!!
Well now, in Episode #213 we explore the essence of life, the essence of living life to the full.
We explore peace of mind and what I describe as "the flat calm of being", of not having a care in the world.
And, as you'll discover, it's all about perspective or, perhaps, not having one - now there's a thought!
Which leads us back into the world of thought - the world of not being, the world that only exists in the warped minds of those lost in thought... most of us.
So, we talk about the experience of being - it's all about experience. Yes, we could have the support of all the science in the world (and we have) to confirm how the world really works but, ultimately, it all boils down to you experiencing it.
And the experience is, in essence, the joy of being in just this moment.
How to do it? Well, you're going to have to listen to the episode, aren't you!
Has it taken me until Episode 212 to explain the step-by-step actions and benefits of meditation?
Well, you'll have to listen to really find out but...
This episode explains the science of meditation - forget the spiritual or religious, we're talking hard science. And we're talking about the impact that an understanding of the hard science has on your understanding and experience of meditation and, more importantly, the very real an powerful impact meditation will have in the cut and thrust of your everyday life - very quickly.
We're talking weeks.
If there is anything in your life that you don't like - and everyone has, at least, a short list of things that they'd like to change - then meditation is going to provide you with the neurological structure and practical ability to allow those changes happen, allow your perceived dislikes to vanish - just as meditation will allow your self-defeating or negative thoughts to vanish.
This episode gives you the big why - once we know why we're doing anything, whatever it is that we have to do becomes all the easier and more effective.
This Episode 212 is a must if you want to change your life or any aspect of it.
Which is easier, to think about doing something, to annoy yourself that you're thinking about doing it instead of doing it, to get frustrated and, perhaps, even guilty that you haven't done what you know you need to do or... to just do what you need to do?
Which is easier?
You know that answer. What you don't know is that everything, other than doing what needs to be done, is the result of thought, your thought, repetitive thought, the thoughts that hold you back.
And, then, what you probably will not know is that, when you actually go and do what needs to be done, you'll do it through the fog of thought that our brain's "Autopilot" uses to enable us make it through the day unharmed.
Let's go further. You'll probably be aware that you have strengths and weaknesses - probably more weaknesses (there's a reason for that). What you won't be aware of is that neither your strengths nor weaknesses are real. Simply more thinking.
You really need to listen to this episode - it will awaken you to what is truly possible in your life - starting now.
Now there's a title!
This episode covers a multitude but, in essence, goes straight to the heart of why we, as humans, are losing our humanity or, as one scientist puts it, "losing our soul".
This hasn't got an awful lot to do with Artificial Intelligence. Instead, it's got to do the "Knowledge" or the accumulation of what passes for knowledge.
In essence, it's all about how thinking divorces from reality, how thinking distances is from our true nature, how accumulated thought - including the 70k thoughts that are swilling around in your head every day - has separated from our "perfect virtue".
On the one hand, truth is, this is a process that's been going on for over 7,000 years.
On the other hand, this is a process that you can not just stop in its tracks but reverse in a couple of weeks, during which you'll have taken your very own evolutionary quantum leap.
Listen and be...
Everything bad in your life comes from thought. You need to not think. I didn't say that you need to stop thinking, I said that you need to not think. And there's a difference, a huge difference and it is the difference that will transform your life.
No more "I don't think that I can do that". No more "I think I wouldn't get away with saying that". No more "What will other people think of me". Too much thinking.
We're at our best as human beings when we're not thinking - when we are, as the name suggests, just being.
So... in this episode we're exploring how to simply and effortlessly be, how to kiss all your cares and worries goodbye, how to experience Flow and how to allow all the best in life simply "fall into your lap".
You'll learn about not just seeing the light but being the light - we're talking hard science here.
You'll learn how to allow yourself flow so that you do what you thought you couldn't do, say what you thought you couldn't get away with and, as a result, amaze yourself.
Prepare to be amazed.
Yes, we're talking about family in this episode: family relationships, dysfunctional families, family feuds, normal crazy people behaving... normally!
We could come at it from the perspective of sibling rivalry, parental shortcomings - something we recently explored in The Age of Adolescence - or the so-called "Developmental Niche". But, forget all that, we need to look at it through the knowledge that you already have from listening to this podcast.
In short, we address how to navigate your way through what, for many (even if they won't admit it by papering over the cracks) is something akin to a minefield.
We address how to look after yourself - you are the most important person in your life - and how to come to a place where, if the "normal crazies" are open to it, everyone can be a winner.
Most importantly, we address family dynamics from the perspective of your own energy and flow, bearing in mind, as we explored a couple of weeks ago, your free-flowing energy might just help others flow too.
You may not like what you hear in this episode for over 90% of illness is a result of lifestyle choices - in other words, most illnesses are self-inflicted.
Of course, like everything else in life, the great news is... if you're the problem, you're also the solution.
And this episode explores how this actually works in practice. More than that, it provides you with the one simple step that we can all take towards a happier and healthier life.
We explore the interplay between genetics - often the lame excuse that normal crazy people use to explain their lifestyle-induced medical conditions - and lifestyle choices.
And, as we explain in this video, there is, of course, an interplay between the two but it all boils down to this: when it comes to illness or potential illness, genetics "loads the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger".
What lifestyle choices are we talking about? Well, in actual fact, there's just the one!
Yes, as always, why would I complicate the simple... the one and only choice that we all need to get right is whether or not we're in control of our own state of mind because, when we are, we'll get all the other choices right.
And, again as always, we explain exactly how to make that one lifestyle choice and, for starters, how getting that choice right will totally reconfigure your physical health.
But that's only for starters.
This is an episode about being a good parent. Being a good parent starts with being a loving person, a person that loves oneself. Actually, being a good parent is simply about... being.
In this episode, we explore development psychology, what happens during the third year of our lives, what parents, entirely unwittingly because they're not properly present, do to their children... obviously being completely unaware of it.
We explore adolescence - not the Netflix series although what happens in the Netflix series provides a useful foil for the subject matter of this episode. We explore adolescence in the context of how, if we have done things to our children when they were growing up, we can undo those things.
The lessons are simple - it's never too late to love: to love yourself and truly love your "loved ones". It's never too late to raise the lives of those around you by raising your own game, by becoming properly present.
And, of course, it's never to late for anything because... all we have is now - this is where and when we need to be at our best, to do our best, to create a better world.
This episode goes beyond caring in a variety of different ways.
First of all, most people don't care about themselves first of all! You are the most important person in your life and, if you don't care for yourself, you're in no position to care for anyone else.
Not just that, if you don't care for yourself, you're currently missing and will continue to miss your own life.
But we go further beyond caring in this episode because, it's only when you literally "go beyond caring" that all that's best starts flowing for you.
In this context, caring is synonymous with wondering - "when will my Perfect Moment happen?" - which leads to worrying, which leads to frustration, which leads back into the dark vortex created by thought that divorces you from the here and now where, if you've gone beyond caring, you'll simply be aware of and embrace the opportunities or synchronicities that will allow all good things "fall into your lap".
Laced with a few good, practical, stories - from people who, having gone beyond caring, have had their "ideal" scenarios "just happen" - this episode is like a user's manual on how to great your ideal life.
Well, actually, this episode is about so much more than that!
Manifestation is grossly misunderstood, dare I say it, grossly... mis-sold.
You are already good at "manifesting" - because, not only can everyone do it, everyone is manifesting - all of the time.
It's just that most people - unaware "normal crazy people" - are manifesting what they don't want!
So, what is manifesting? How can you manifest what you actually want? Or, more to the point and better again, how can you manifest what's best for you?
All your questions about manifesting and manifestation are answered in juts over thirty minutes. Worth a listen...
Everything that's wrong in your life comes from thought. All good things flow, when you're in flow.
In this episode we explore how people get stuck, how they can be paralysed by fear to the point of panic, how people end up by putting themselves in the nearest cardiac unit.
For example, the physical effects of stress are very real indeed but the root cause is imagined - an automatic flurry of thoughts that tigger all the wrong things to happen in your body.
A mind that is ill at ease creates a body of disease.
Never mind. It's all normal and it will pass!
All you have to do is not think - we're at our very best when we're not thinking.
Then, you can tune in to what's going on, notice the synchronicities, allow yourself be guided by them in harmony with your gut instinct and... do.
And the doing comes effortlessly. All good things flow when you're in flow.
This episode starts by exploring the feelings and sentiments of a bruised and battered leadership team - and their discovery that they had something to celebrate.
Life throws us curved balls every day. For most (read "Normal Crazy People"), the automatic way in which the thinking mind reacts only magnifies life's everyday challenges, making dealing with them all the more difficult.
For starters, in this episode, we celebrate coping. When we cope with a challenge - or, to put it in proper terms, when we rise to a challenge and deal with it - we provide ourselves with an important opportunity to encourage ourselves to move forward in our lives.
Coping produces Perfect Moments. And, yet, coping is just the beginning.
When you take control of your state of mind, when you stop thinking and start acting, when you "go beyond caring", you're ready for real action. And every, however small, demonstration of real action encourages us to "trust the process".
This "process" is one where, by taking control of our state of mind, we become action heroes - no more thinking and overthinking, no more making the simple complex, no more questioning our ability to change our lives. We just do.
And, when we just do - starting with coping - we learn to trust a process that is, in fact, a process in developing our ability to trust ourselves.
There's an inner you that you can trust implicitly - explicitly. This inner you rises from within when you rise to the occasion of the here and now.
It's time to liberate that inner you.
Imagine investing your attention, focus and energy in what you don't want to happen.
You don't need to imagine - it's something that comes naturally to the normal crazy mind - it's called worry.
And only an idiot would go there. But, we're all idiots until we take responsibility for what's going on in our head and take control of our state of mind.
In this episode, we explore how thinking leads to over-thinking, how wondering leads to worrying, we explore the delusional dangers of positive thinking and, obviously, we consider the detailed instructions on how to take that responsibility and control that leads to an end of worry, an end to stress and the beginning of an everyday experience of everyday life that is... a joy to behold.
We explore how taking control of your state of mind is actually simple, an easy task: you don't have to fight the thoughts in your head that lead to worry, you don't even have to fight the 1.8m years of evolution that designed your mind to err in the negative.
You simply have to allow yourself be. And, to do that, you can simply use the everyday tasks at hand to... change your life beyond recognition.
And, oh, beware of red BMWs!
You don't find flow, nor peace of mind... they find you.
In this episode, we explore how to allow this happen - it is, as the very title of this whole podcast would suggest, a process of letting go.
Before we get into that, though, we explore what flow is, in actuality, in practical terms and we explore the nature of peace of mind and its implications.
We learn that, with peace of mind, comes an understanding, an experience of not having a care in the world. And we learn that, with flow, not only do we discover that we can do what we need to do effortlessly, we discover that we can do things that we never imagined ourselves doing or being capable of doing.
We discover how to live the kind of life our heart desires, without having to work hard to get there or, perhaps, without having to work... at all.
This episode's title holds true, whether you're a normal crazy person or someone who has taken responsibility for your own state of mind.
What's going on within creates what you achieve and experience - it has nothing to do with anyone else but you.
If you're a normal crazy person, your everyday life is the result of a mass hallucination, a mass hypnosis driven by programmed, patterned, repetitive thought, which leads to a programmed, patterned, repetitive life - no wonder, when using our minds this way, we feel stuck, fearful of change and stressed (and much more besides).
Normal, shared, hallucinogenic thought creates an assumed reality that enough people share to provide us with the "comfort" that it must be OK. It's not.
Being the creator of your own life, as you are, you must ask yourself this key question:
"What kind of life do I really want to create for myself?"
This is actually a simpler question to answer than you might think. And this is one of the key questions that we address in this episode. I hope this discussion will enable you settle on the answer that you know (normal people don't know that they know!) to be the best answer for you and yours.
But, then, this episode goes on to explain how to create the life that's best for you and what results you can expect.
Worth 35mins of your time!
I really don't like the title of this week's episode because we're talking about so much more...
First of all, we bust a few productivity-boosting myths: like you should do the (apparently) important things first or you should do the task you'd prefer not to have to do at all before you do anything else; like you should have a "To Do List" or have a plan or, God help us, an Action Plan; like multi-tasking, otherwise known to cognitive psychology as trying to half do a load of things badly simultaneously. Ah... Myths!
More importantly, this episode provides you with a step-by-step Blueprint that will boost an awful lot more than your productivity.
Because, essentially, we're talking about focus and flow in this episode. And we're talking about the importance of focus and flow in everything - focus is not just a work thing, obviously.
Allied to that Blueprint is an exploration of "compartmentalisation" - actually another aspect or attribute of Flow.
In short, this episode is longer than usual (bit of a paradox there!) because there's so much in it - so much that will change your life.
Another misleading episode title - because there's nothing that you need to boost!
Self-esteem is about how you think about what you think about who you think you are. How many steps removed are we from reality?
It's only our "Conceptual Self" that thinks it needs bettering, buttering-up, bolstering. The various tips that you'll find online about boosting your self-esteem are thoughts about thoughts.
And, as we know from previous episodes, we are at our best when we are not thinking. We are when we are not thinking.
So, do we need to stop thinking? And how much effort will that take? Is it even possible?
No, you don't need to try to stop something, you need to start being something... real. You simply need to come to your senses to actually feel who you really are - that way you'll stop thinking about it, stop thinking about yourself.
And, when we stop thinking, we start living. And that's a game-changer.
Actually, the title of this week's episode is a little misleading - after all, why do you need to deal with something that, in reality, isn't there.
Yes, whilst everyday life is full or pressure and challenge, stress is imaginary, in the mind of the beholder.
That doesn't make stress any less life-destroying, literally. Everyday stress kills, like death by a thousand cuts. Everyday stress damages the cardiovascular, digestive and immune systems - but not, not ever, beyond repair.
You can choose to rid your life of stress today - you don't even have to image something different from your imaginary stress, you just have to come to your senses.
In this episode, we explore how two-step cognitive appraisal triggers stress - in other words, what's happening to you doesn't trigger your stress, what you think about what you think is happening and how you think you might be able to handle it... all that thinking is what triggers your stress and, in the process, makes what might be a small, everyday challenge, feel like a life-threatening situation.
All this is automated but that does not mean that there's nothing that you can do about it.
On the contrary - the small steps that you must take to rid your life of stress are as easy and as natural as breathing in and out.
And ridding your life of stress is only the beginning because, once free of that thought-fuelled downward spiral, you're free to start living the kind of life you're meant to be living, one that's filled with perfect moments.
Regardless of your individual circumstances, there is one thing that I know you're looking for (because everyone's looking for it)... peace of mind.
Now, before we go any further, I do know some people who are not looking for peace of mind because they've already found it - they're owners of The Psychology of Success Online Program. You'll find details of that in the link in your podcast player!
Anyway, back to this episode. When you experience peace of mind, even for a moment, everything changes because your perspective is altered and, once experienced it cannot be unexperienced.
With peace of mind comes presence and presence is not just attractive, it's creative.
In this episode we explore how we effortlessly encounter opportunity when we're present - opportunity that your thinking mind could never imagine happening. I've picked a perfect client story to illustrate the point.
With presence comes an understanding that, in this moment (which is the only place and time that you can do what you need to do to get to where's best for you), all is well, you don't have a care in the world.
And that's liberating.
And, when you're liberated, anything's possible or, actually, the best's just going to happen.
We're talking about real success and happiness in this episode - we're talking about the real you and how different that is from the person that you think you are, the personality that fits you like a glove.
We're talking about how to balance work and life, how to rid your life of stress, effort and worry. We're talking about living your life on your terms, your way.
But we're not just talking about it - this episode provides both the instructions on how to do the right things in the right way at the right time (and no more!) and how that actually works in the reality of the cut and thrust of everyday life.
And we're exploring the actual difference that makes: to the structure of your brain and to your experience of everyday life - how others have changed their lives by changing their minds.
And how you can do that too. Today.
What does happiness mean to you? What does success look like? How would it feel to be living your life, your way, to the full?
Do you need to answer these questions? You certainly shouldn't exercise your mind in thinking about them!
In this episode, we explore how we need not define happiness and success, how we need to know what it's like to feel it and how, when we do feel it, even if only for a glancing moment, do we sustain it.
Yes, living your "best life" - an awful expression but you know what I mean - is but a breath away or, perhaps, not even that!
As is often the case, I sat down to record one episode and an entirely different episode emerged... it's called being in flow!
So, whilst the above title is spot on, I explore a variety of ways in which we normally try to succeed or excel, which simply do not work - or worse set us up for disappointment or failure - as an introduction to the last ten minutes of this episode when... you get exactly what it says on the tin!
What does that mean? You're getting simple instruction in proper meditation. You're getting a refresher in the importance of proper meditation and we're more deeply exploring what passes for living when you've not embarked on a program of proper meditation.
This episode goes around the houses just a bit before getting to the point but, as with life itself, the journey is what's important. Listen carefully, you never know when you'll have an "Aha Moment".
Well, now - there's so much in this episode!
We debunk the idea that you can get more out of life by working harder, not smarter. You don't have to work at all.
We get to understand your life's purpose. Yes, I already know it!
We deal with the confusion created by too many apparent bright ideas and we understand how, when we take our foot off the gas, we accelerate.
Yes - the whole process, the flow of synchronicities, the abundance of real-life, everyday results, everything accelerates when you ease up.
What do we mean by easing up? Well, you really should invest just over half an hour of your time by listening to this episode - it may be the one that tips you over that tipping point into living right now like you mean it.
There's so much in this episode: from reflecting on how you react or how you've noticed that you're less prone to reaction, to considering how you say and do what you might previously have been coy about saying and doing; from how your doing mind looks after you, does things for you to how your automatic mind does things to you.
We explore the hows of looking after your moment-to-moment behaviour, allowing yourself make the right choices and decisions and being agile to get the most out fo the moment.
And we highlight the significance of the apparent insignificance of the moment, the small actions, the little choices.
More than that, we realise that the future starts from where you are and that there's no merit in revisiting the un-undoable past, because... the past does not belong to you. You really need to listen to understand what I mean by that!
All in all, in this episode we take another one of those proverbial steps in the right direction.
Which of the above three words is bad?
In this episode we explore and explode some of the myths about goal-setting and, then, how get a feel for what is best for you.
Yes, I did not say what you "want" - we can have so much more out of life than we think we want.
We investigate how, in clearing your mind, everything becomes clearer: your own self-worth, your perspective of reality, the things that are most important to you and what your heart truly desires. Big stuff, the stuff that a great life is made of.
But, then, there comes a very important word of caution which could be summed up as follows: play your cards close to your chest.
Yes, all that - and more - is to be explored in this episode.
You never know when you're going to learn something new, just like we can never anticipate having an Aha Moment - if we could it wouldn't be an Aha Moment!
And we never know who's going to teach us - learning comes from the most unlikely places.
In this episode we explore signs, signposts, opportunities and synchronicities - all easily spotted, embraced and followed... when we are present.
Are we talking about "presence of mind" - much more than that. Are we talking about "mindfulness" - well that's just a means to an end or, should I say, a means to ever moving forward because it's not the "end" that matters, it is the now.
A couple of everyday practical examples will explain how flow works in practice, how energy works in what our normal way of thinking would consider to be mysterious ways.
And how, when we just let go - to coin a phrase! - all good things "fall into our lap" - effortlessly, of course.
One of the most difficult things in life to say - and, in not saying it, a rock on which we so often perish... "NO".
We get into so much trouble by not saying what needs to be said because we're afraid.
What will others think of us? We'll debunk that nonsense in this episode!
How could I get away with saying that? We'll deal with this too.
And, then, of course, we'll explore how life is so much simpler and easier - to the point of effortless - when we say and do what needs to be said and done.
And it's not just what you say, it's how you say it. Will you need to worry about how you go about doing that? Will you need to have a plan for it? No... it'll all just come out in the right way, at the right time, when the opportunity occurs, if (and only if) we're tuned in, fully present and in control of our own state of mind.
You're never wrong saying the right thing. This is how to do it effortlessly.
There's so much in this episode: from love and self-love to unconditional love, from being busy-busy-busy to... doing nothing.
Doing nothing: giving yourself the mental and spiritual space to experience clarity of mind, presence of mind, an ability to effortlessly do and say the right things and, most of all, a deep understanding of what your big dreams might be.
Yes, we're following on from last week's episode when we started exploring the necessity to "dream big dreams" - a necessity because, if you don't, you're missing out on the grandeur of your own life.
I explain exactly what I mean by "doing nothing" - perhaps the most powerful form of meditation that we can practice. A practice that provides the inner calm necessary for us not to have a Eureka moment, but a whole flood of Eureka moments.
And you just might discover that doing nothing is the most important thing you could ever do!
What does peace of mind mean to you? How about being carefree, how would that feel? How will we know how to dream big dreams if we don't know what it would feel like to know that we don't have a care in the world?
Well that, amongst plenty more besides, is what we explore in this new episode of To Succeed... Just Let Go.
One key theme running through this episode can be summed up like this: you are at your best when you're not thinking.
Not thinking is the key to understanding who you are, what you are and what your big dreams would look and feel like.
Once we begin to understand what we truly "want" out of life, we then, as we explain in this episode, give our subconscious mind its "landing co-ordinates" - and, when we allow it, it will take us there... effortlessly.
There's much more to this episode than the above few words summarise - worth 32mins of your time!
Yes, once you get the hang of making the right choice, your new life takes on, quite literally, a life of its own.
In this episode we're exploring peace of mind and how to experience it.
And it is all about... experience - the great thing being, once you experience it, you can never un-experience it.
Peace of mind means: health, happiness, effortlessness, living "your best life", without a care in the world.
Like some of that?
The recipe is here and, actually, there are only two ingredients. How simple is that.
You are not who you think you are. Your deeply held expectations and beliefs about yourself have nothing to do with who you really are.
You are not your personality. You are not your so-called Conceptual Self - as we say in this episode, this fact is confirmed by the word "conceptual" - you are not a bundle of misconceived concepts, you are something far grander.
Imagine the power that you have within when you consider that people in their 70s, meditating for the first time, can meditate themselves neurally younger, reverse cognitive decline...
And that's only an isolated example of the power within.
When you begin to discover that power, no longer will you be afraid to venture beyond your comfort zone, out into a world beyond the capability of your thinking mind to even imagine.
As we say in this week's episode: It's time to wake up.
Oh, we're so good at coming up with "reasons why not":
That would be unrealistic - I can't see how that could happen - that's never going to work for little ol' me!!
All nonsense created by the normal thinking mind that is designed to ensure that your life does not change.
This episode use practical examples - case studies if you like - of how to let all your excuses and obstacles... just evaporate.
This is, if ever there was one, a How To episode.
Are you really your own worst enemy? Are you the one that's always getting in your own way? Is your daily life like an obstacle course?!
Would you, join two-thirds of my audience (you need to listen to the episode!) and what would that say about the extent to which you are or are not in the driving seat of your life?
In this episode we explore how we can, to quote a client "leave the old world of thought" behind. I explain just how effortless the whole "process" is.
And we explore the very real consequences of you choosing to pay attention to what is going on instead of paying automatic habituated attention to what you're thinking.
Your life awaits just a little action on your part!
All was well until thought crept over the fence and destroyed our experience of life!
All thinking leads to over-thinking. All thinking is flawed. And all flawed thinking leads you to thinking that you are flawed.
Flawed and undeserving, little in comparison to how grand you really are.
Using our mind that normal way, we sleepwalk through our lives, missing... everything but experiencing effort, struggle, stress and frustration.
We simply need to let our thoughts pass by.
Then, we experience reality as it is. We experience ourselves as we are. And we do what we need to do in the right in the right way at the right time... effortlessly.
Like the sound of that?
All too many people meditate without know why they need to meditate.
Yes, meditation is a necessity. If you don't take control of your own state of mind you will continue to miss your own life.
In this episode, I explain exactly how this happens automatically and we explore the implications.
Those implications are numerous and, at its most fundamental, they are the reasons why it is so difficult to give up bad habits, lose weight, make money, enjoy yourself as your self.
In these 30mins, I hope, I will impress upon you the paramount importance of taking control of your won state of mind. And how doing so will change... everything.
Also, you will hear me referencing a book during this episode - Depression: An Emotion Not an Illness. That book is by Aine Tubridy and Michael Corry.
We're all have a pretty good idea of what we don't want in our everyday lives. But goals are not things from which you run away!
No... goals are things we run towards - it's how we best set our mind to achieve anything and everything that our heart desires.
In this episode we explore exactly how to do that and, more importantly, we explore how our doing mind then goes about enabling that which our heart desires "fall intou our lap".
So, forget about what you don't want in your life; forget about how or when what you do want will happen; forget about where you'll be or what you need to do - just set your mind.
Then, your set mind will look after the rest. It will ensure that, in every here and now, you do the right thing to inexorably move you to where you really, really want to be.
You don't have to worry about what you need to do or when you need to do it. You don't need a plan. You need to have the end in mind and, with the end in mind, your doing mind will take you there.
And it's all pretty effortless.
You don't need to push nor do you need to struggle. You don't need to wonder when what your heart desires will fall into your lap. It will happen in its own good time.
Yes, life's a lot like comedy, it's all about... timing!
When you're in flow, you will discover the right information in the right way at the right time; you will hear things at just the moment that they mean the most to you; your Perfect Moments will "fall into your lap" at the perfect moment (otherwise they wouldn't be perfect moments!).
What you and I have to do is turn up: be focused, present, alert and ready for action.
To do this we need to become accustomed to choosing to be present, we need to become adept at practicing being present.
Through presence and action we become ready to receive - to receive all the good things that will inevitably "fall into our lap" in the right way, at the right time, effortlessly.
What strategies do you need to adopt for changing your life or any aspect of it?
What plans to you need to create to take the right action that will lead you to achieve your goals?
Well, you're in for an eye-opener in this episode: strategies and plans are what normal crazy people create to end up... in the same place!
You need neither strategies nor plans to transform your life and every aspect of it. In fact, there's only one thing that you need to change and that change will enable you do everything in the right way, at the right time to achieve so much more than what your thinking mind might have had in mind for you by way of "goals".
And a word of advice... do work through this episode (it's full of practical tips) and do listen carefully to the last 4 minutes... I'll say no more.
Yes, there's only one lifestyle choice that you need to make - after that you're restructured brain will take you in hand and make all the moment-to-moment choices for you effortlessly.
That means you'll start acting - a world away from how we normally only automatically react.
That means you will transform every aspect of your life: your health and wellbeing, your financial freedom, your success and happiness.
What's that one lifestyle choice? Well, if you're a regular listener, you may well already know. If you're not, it's time to find out!
But, as I said, getting it right it enables you live life to the full, it enables you effortlessly make the moment-to-moment binary choice: am I present or am I thinking.
We've talked about how important it is to forget the past - with a view to living in the present.
But what about the future? Surely you need to think your future through, figure it out, have a plan. No!
Forget about the future too.
Because the only place that you can live your life is in the here and now. Your future will be created by what you do and how you do it in the here and now.
And, when you do turn up to and tune in to the here and now, lo and behold, you feel a sense of direction - it's called your gut instinct. You know what the right thing is to do now, to lead you to where is best for you, regardless of what you might think is going on in the here and now.
The episode explains exactly how this works in practice - it also explains how normal crazy people are responsible for creating the kind of life that they'd prefer not to have!
But let's not dwell on that. Instead, let's dwell on how to live, for real, with an inbuilt sense of unwavering direction.
So many people think that revisiting it will enable unpack who they think they are and, then, move on. So many people want to revisit it but end up reliving it.
And, even without the aid of a psychoanalyst, you must understand that the normally-minded way of "operating" means that we are, in effect, reliving our past every single day - every Groundhog Day - and, in the process, missing every single day of our lives.
No... today is the day that you decide "I'm leaving my past where it belongs... in the past".
Today is the day that you're going to fully understand and appreciate the importance of tuning your attention to the present, restructuring your brain's key neural components and taking the quantum evolutionary leap that is going to change your mind... today.
Time to move up a few gears...
We're moving our conversation along - from how we deal with so-called normal crazy people to how we create and build the kind of relationships that enrich our lives and, indeed, the lives of those around us.
We're talking about meaningfully touching other people's lives by discovering our own!
This is one of the most joyful parts of the adventure that we explore in this Podcast and it starts with those who are closest to us.
In this episode, we explore how you discover your true self, how, through liberating yourself from your own thoughts (and misgivings about who you think you are), you will encounter and experience the joy of traveling with like-minded people.
And, of course, as always, you will discover the simple steps that make this whole adventure effortless.
OK, so you're working on yourself (you are, like the rest of us, a work-in-progress) and you're discovering more about your inner power and how presence transforms everything.
And, then, you come down out of the little ivory tower in which you were meditating at 7.00am in the morning and are slapped across the face by the simple mathematical fact that you're pretty much only going to be confronted by normal crazy people today.
How do you deal with that? How do you deal with them? How do you handle other people?
Well, for starters, in this episode, we start (again) by addressing how you need to deal with the other person... in your head. The one that shouts loudest, the one who isn't there!
Once you've put on and adjusted your own oxygen mask, so to speak, your ready for action - not reaction, there's a world of difference - and that'll change everything, including (some of) those normal crazy people around you.
Discard your "To Do" List and start doing the important stuff - the stuff that your thinking mind would never conceive putting on a To Do List.
Yes, today we're talking about you being the right person, in the right place, at the right time, doing just what you need to do to achieve what you want... and doing no more.
In this episode, I explain why so many people have said to me, over the years, that the best things in life seem to "just happen" or it feels like the good stuff in life "just falls into my lap". I explain how it actually works in detail, using everyday examples for the challenging world of work, business, family life and relationships.
And the really interesting thing is that, as the above "quotes" would suggest, it's all very easy indeed - to the point of effortless.
And the secret? What will set you apart from everyone else? Well, you're going to be completely different from 96% of people on this planet, because you're going to turn up!
This episode follow on from last week's - #168.
Here, I explain exactly how trying in built-in to our way of normal thinking - it's a fundamental evolutionary flaw. I explain this with practical everyday examples.
We then explore how to stop trying. I do this step-by-step - again with practical examples.
When you stop trying, you start doing just what you need to do and you do it in the right way, at the right time... effortlessly.
I explain the discipline required to do this. But it's not the kind of discipline that you think is required - it's actually very simple indeed.
With a disciplined mind, you start making the right little choices - the ones that are otherwise made for you automatically by your thinking mind - and your thinking mind will always make the wrong choice!
You're going to start making the right little choices that will start changing your life straight away - today.
The one thing that will stop you getting what you want is trying too hard.
Or we could put it another way: the one thing that will stop you getting what you want is thinking that you have to try hard. Or... thinking at all because, as we all already know, all thinking leads to over-thinking and we end up suffocating the life out of ourselves.
So, let this episode be an adventure for you into the world of how this works for real people... I'm using plenty of examples in this episode about how what you need "falls into your lap" or "just happens" when you "stop trying", "do nothing" or have "gone beyond caring" (AKA stopped trying!).
When you stop thinking - the thinking that leads to trying, struggle and stress - you'll discover that you have what the normal mind would consider "super-human powers". You'll discover not only that the journey can be effortless - you'll actually discover your very own journey.
A little too cryptic for you? Well we haven't even talked about spit yet!!!
Oh yes, this episode is a how to episode!
Learn how to make the right choices and right decisions by... learning how to choose in the first place.
You see, the normal mind cannot make choices - the choices are made automatically by the brain's Autopilot. The normal mind cannot take action - it's always in automatic reactive mode.
So you can't choose to be in flow until you re-learn (yes, you already know how to do this) how to make the choice and take the action to experience Flow.
Once experienced deliberately, in cannot be unexperienced - it can only be built upon. And this ongoing process will change every aspect of your life and how you experience it.
So, you have the step-by-step in this episode - not just how to choose, not just how to take action, not just how to experience Flow but, all importantly, how to maintain Flow during the cut and thrust of your everyday life.
So, not only are we building on last week's episode - How to Work Smarter Not Harder - we are going beyond... into the life that you would love to live.
How much easier would life be if you could stop the nonsense of thinking that you need to work hard to be a success?
How much more effortless would your daily workload be if you could be in what athletes call "the zone", while you're working?
How much more fun would life be if you only did what you needed to do, in the right way, at the right time... and forget the rest?
Well, in this episode, you get a blow-by-blow account of how to work smarter. You get the step-by-step guide to allowing your doing mind enable you flow through your day effortlessly - not some days, every day.
As you might imagine, it all boils down to knowing what the right things are to do (and forgetting the rest!), doing them effortlessly in the right way and, then, moving on to the next now.
As I say right at the end of this week's episode, "nothing could be simpler" - and I mean it.
We're off on an adventure in this week's episode... the adventure that you will experience when you change your expectations.
We "live" according to our expectations: our expectations of ourselves and how the world works. And, for the normally-minded individual, that means that we always live down to our expectations.
And that's not living at all.
And because it's a scientific fact that we only perceive and achieve according to those hard-baked in-build expectations, nothing is ever going to change in your life - until you change those expectations.
First and foremost, you need to experience that the expectations that you have of yourself are wrong. You experience this through meditation. And, indeed, this episode has something of a teeny-tiny masterclass on meditation!
You then need to alter your expectations of how things will work out for you in any situation - this is what normal people call "plans" and "wishes", "goals" and "objectives" - things that the part of your mind that runs your life simply doesn't understand!
In this episode, in the space of a couple of minutes, you're going to learn how to give your mind the expectations that you want of your life, starting straight away.
As an Online Program Owner said to me this week "This is my life, my way" - and that is what this episode is all about.
Actually, the title of this week's Episode should be "Who's Hindering Who?"
Yes, this week we take a tour into the realms of madness, crushed dreams and lost lives. Seriously.
And I don't apologise for the blunt delivery of this week's message - because we're talking about a matter of life and death... your's.
We're exploring the fact that there are two of you and the one of you who makes the most noise doesn't actually exist - although it sure feels as if they do.
They make so much noise that you could be forgiven for thinking that the other you doesn't even exist and, yet, it is this "other you" who will enable you live your life in a way that the noise in your head could never even begin to imagine.
It is this "other you" that you can trust - implicitly, explicitly, completely. Let that other you take you by the hand on the adventure of your lifetime.
This episode covers a multitude! The sad fact that we (normally) miss our own lives and don't even know it; the need to "follow the process" and, indeed, trust that process to deliver, as it has done for so many people.
Deliver what? Well, the life you'd love to live.
Yes, we explore how to meditate properly so that you experience the moment, so that you experience yourself and your true essence, so that you turn yourself on, turn up to your own life and live it like you mean it.
In a nutshell... evolution gave you a brain that is structured to focus on threats, meditation restructures your brain to focus on opportunities - the difference is like night and day.
So, emerge from the dark recesses of your self-limiting beliefs, into the incredible light of being. When you do, you'll start amazing yourself.
All that said, this all starts with the realisation that... this is your life, right here, right now. Once you realise this, so much more makes so much sense.
There's a short answer to the question that's the title of this week's episode - but it needs a little explaining.
So... there are a number of really important take-aways in this week's episode that, for starters, explore how we should feel about our past or, should I say, our lost years, the years in which our life passed us by because we hadn't turned up to it!
There's a detailed explanation of what the mainstream media call mindfulness - something that most commentators (and, for that matter, teachers) know precious little about.
And, then, there are the keys do moving your life forward effortlessly, to a place where you are regularly experiencing peace of mind, carefreeness, joy and success. And, yes, it's a bit like driving a car - you'll never get started if you don't turn the key!
A practical session that explains how we get in our own way. As a result, we're annoyed, frustrated, anxious, stressed, worn down and out.
At bottom, we're annoyed and frustrated with ourselves. And it's all because of thinking because... all thinking leads to over-thinking.
The alternative is breathtaking - an alternate reality (which happens to be the real one as from the one you think you're living in) where you just do what you need to do in the right way, at the right time, effortlessly.
Yes - this episode does exactly what it says on the tin! It explains how to have an effortless day. In fact, we explore how to enjoy an effortless life - but let's walk before we run!
Armed with a couple of practical examples, take a trip into the wonderful world of living without struggle, strain, frustration or stress - into a world that is entirely in your own two hands.
We're going back to basics in this episode - because we all need to remember why we need to meditate.
Like anything else in life, if you don't know why you're doing something, what ever you're doing becomes so much more difficult - to the point where you'll give it up as a bad lot!
So, we explore the unfortunate side effects of the survival of the fittest - the brain that evolution has lumbered us humans with. We explore how it works against us and how it stops you changing your life or any aspect of it.
Of course, we're only wallowing around in all that bad stuff as a wake-up call - to encourage you do what you need to do to... change your life or any aspect of it.
So, are you ready to turn up to your own life? Are you ready to take control of that all-powerful piece of equipment between your own two ears? Are you ready to "amaze yourself" in discovering just how amazing you are?
We're talking about stepping outside your so-called comfort zone in this episode - you know, the one in which you feel safe but you know to be, at the very least, uncomfortable.
In fact, without taking control of what's going on between your two ears, without taking responsibility for your state of mind, that comfort zone is more like a prison cell. Seriously.
In this episode, we cover what happens when you walk out into the world that your thinking mind thinks is not there, what you will discover, first of all, about yourself and, then, the opportunity and synchronicity that you will discover then you choose to get out of your own way.
You'll realise that you neither need to be brave or courageous. You only need to turn up. Another "seriously"!
When we turn up, we effortlessly do what we need to do (and say), in the right way, at the right time. That doesn't just enable us spot and embrace opportunity, it enables us create both opportunity and the synchronicity that will enable what we would most dearly love to experience simply "fall into your lap".
Worth 30mins of your time!!
We're in between the Christmas festivities and the New Year - often a time for reflection. So, in this episode, I'm telling you not to reflect!
Instead, I have a suggestion for you that is far more interesting, one that will offer you the opportunity to get to know yourself in a way that may just fully jolt you into the realisation of your own inner power.
Effectively, I'm suggesting an exercise in awareness - the root of understanding and being. My suggestion will enable you take a giant leap forward even if that is not immediately apparent to you at the time.
You see, we are all - and always will be - a work in progress. That means, the more work we put into ourselves, the more we'll progress.
Wouldn't you like to progress while you still have the opportunity? Wouldn't you like to progress by embracing the opportunity that this bit of downtime between now and the New Year offers us?
Well, as we've been saying week after week, you've got to make the choice. Choose wisely.
And, on more thing. As I mention at the very end of this episode, I have a free three-part video-based online training program on the go right now: three sessions that will be fed into your inbox over the course of just a couple of days. All you need to do is sign up to receive more "work" (to make more progress) using the link in your Podcast player.
We travel into your inner world in this episode because everything that you think is going on in the so-called real world is created within.
That means that you create your own annoyance, frustration, anxiety, loneliness... you name it, you're doing it to yourself - repeatedly.
So, if you want to experience peace of mind, that journey starts within. That's great news because it means that that journey can start right here, right now.
It means that all you have to do is deliberately decide to experience flow in the moment. Even the ordinary-minded individual will experience the odd natural high in their lives. But it won't have been done deliberately, their thinking mind will almost have been caught off guard! They'll have experience flow by accident!
So, what are the steps involved and how long does it take?
The steps are simple. You already have all that it takes to take those steps, regardless of what misgivings that you might think that you have about yourself!
These steps, deliberately taken as often as the choice presents itself - which, by the way, is each now - provide you with a roadmap to happiness, success, peace of mind and all good things.
And that roadmap presents itself one step at a time. All you have to do is take this step now...
It's an expression used frequently by my clients and Online Program Owners - "it feels as if things just fall into my lap".
In the same vein, they regularly talk about things "occur" to them when they are not thinking about what to do or how to do it, when they are not thinking about worries, problems or challenges, when they're not thinking at all.
I've been asked "How do I let what I need fall into my lap?" This episode answers that question.
Whether it's work, business, health, fitness, relationships or dancing lessons(!), what we need arises when we need it, if we let it.
That means, to use another phrase which I regularly hear, that "you need to get out of your own way". This episode explains how to do that.
And, as we say right at the end of this episode, it is incredibly simple to do, it's only thinking that it's complex that makes it complex.
Here we have a practical walk-through what it means to have all good things just "fall into your lap", what it means to live the life you'd love to live like "it just happens"; how to be "the best version of you" and how synchronicity actually works... in practice.
We can talk about the science (we often do!), we can explore the concepts in detail (we often do that too!) and we can discuss the everyday practical how-to steps to "living your life to the full".
But what matters is... Results. Without practical results, why bother?
And there are results-a-plenty. And the best way for me to explain what the results look like, how they "land" or "fall into your lap" what better source to call upon than my own clients and Online Program Owners.
If you ever doubted how the world really works and if it would work in your favour, you need to listen to this episode.
Now, there's an interesting title for this week's episode - words that the normal mind would consider defeatist! And, as we'll discover in this episode, words have power.
So, why are we exploring such anti-aspirational language? The answer is, of course, that we're not! Because I'm not using language in the way in with language is normally used.
So, this week, we take further steps on the adventure of a lifetime that progresses one step at a time, one now at a time. An adventure of experience and insight into who you really are, what you really are.
In the process (the one that Program Owners are always talking about following!) we learn to leave concepts like "want" and "lack" behind. We learn acceptance, detachment and, above all, trust - that we can trust ourselves to do and say what will take us to where is best for us.
There's a wrestling match going on in your brain's cockpit - and the Automatic Pilot needs to be defeated... your life depends upon it!!
Yes, this week we're talking about something beyond the scope of the normal crazy mind, beyond the scope of a mind-on-auto: conscious deliberate choice.
Conscious deliberate choice leads to the kind of conscious deliberate action that will change your life.
And it is a lot simpler than it sounds because you only need to get used to making one conscious deliberate choice on now at a time - it's only your thinking mind that gets you too far ahead of yourself!
So, follow the couple of steps we explore in this week's episode and, quite literally, see where it takes you - it'll take you to places that your thinking mind couldn't even begin to imagine.
And, if you want to take a little step that is, in fact, a quantum leap, have a look at the Black Friday Special Offer for lifetime access to my Online Program The Psychology of Success by clicking the link on your podcast player. Your life's literally in your own hands.
Generally speaking, people don't know what they're talking about when it comes to focus.
I say "generally speaking" because it's 96% true - because normal crazy people cannot focus. Evolution wired the normal brain for something else entirely... survival.
That means that your brain is not wired to achieve your goals. It's not wired to enable you live the kind of life you'd love to live. It's wired to keep you in the box that you think you've been in since you were young and impressionable.
But that is not what this episode is about!
Today I'm explaining what focus is and I'm providing you with exact instructions as to how to do it and...
How to put one foot in front of the other on the adventure to your best life.
You don't need to know what that means - it's simpler than that. You only need to know how to put your best foot forward now. And you will instinctively know how to do just that when you learn how to focus.
Or, actually, this episode is about liberating yourself from the prison of created by your own thoughts.
In this episode we explore right and wrong, good and evil and, when you reflect upon it, you will realise that these are choices with which everyday life confronts us. Say the wrong thing and you throw fuel on the fire, do the wrong thing and dig yourself into a bigger hole. Everyday stuff!
But your life is made up of everyday stuff - for better or, if you're using your mind like a normal adult, for worse.
We explore how this works in everyday practice. How you learned the thoughts that create your version of reality. How those thoughts create the mood in which you think you find yourself. How that mood "enables" you automatically select the next thoughts you think and how those thoughts create the mood you're in.
Now do you know why I call people who are using their mind that way "normal crazy people"?
But all that bad stuff is just a precursor to what this episode is all about: how you can buck 1.8m years of evolution and strike out on the everyday adventure that will change your life.
And there's more. Take note that each Thursday, for the next three Thursdays starting on Thursday November 9th, my weekly Thursday morning videos will, together, constitute a substantial training program that will enable you take the plunge into... the life you would love to live.
Here's the paradox - to just let go you need to take control.
So, in this episode, we explore what "taking control" means: scientifically (we explore cognitive psychology, neuroscience and the phenomenon of neuro-plasticity); with real-life examples (I've three important short stories) and with clear instruction (that explain exactly what we're talking about and how to do it).
For example, did you know that you cannot focus as a normal adult? Did you know that you cannot set your mind to achieve your objectives until you have experienced what it is like to be focused? And do you know what it takes to develop your ability to focus?
This episode answers all these questions in a way that will enable you start changing your life this minute.
Because, when you experience the reality of the here and now, for even a moment, everything changes.
Perhaps its the game-changer you've been waiting for. Or, perhaps, you've experienced it once or twice and you don't know the practicalities of living this way all of the time. Either way... listen, learn and put it into practice.
Wherever you are in life right now, however you feel about your life or any part of it... it's all of your own making.
Too many people blame someone else for their current perceived predicament: my parents, my siblings, the way I was bullied at school, how I was abused, my boss, "the system".
No! If you feel stuck, stressed, frustrated, fat, thin, an under-achiever... you're to blame, it's your fault.
But, as you'll discover in listening to this week's Episode, actually we're neither talking about fault nor blame, we're talking about responsibility. Responsibility for yourself and your own state of mind.
So, this Episode explores things like: cognitive appraisal, snapshot learning (psychological snapshots), perceived inadequacies and how we make sense (nonsense actually!) of what is going on in the here and now and... react accordingly.
Let's put all that another way: you create your own reality.
With that in mind, we explore how to create the reality that you would love to have - not "want" because want is a construction of the self-same thoughts that create the stagnation that most people experience in their lives.
And we finish with a BIG question. If you create your own reality, which would you prefer: the mayhem created by thought or the reality that you would love to experience? Difficult decision!!
Even though we explore bullying, parenting, peace of mind and success in this episode, all these things (and your ability to do and achieve effortlessly) all boil down to whether or not you are in Flow.
We could put that in a variety of different ways, all of which will give you, for startes, some insight into what we're talking about in this episode.
Are you clear and present now? Are you enthusiastic right now? Are you motivated? Are you turned on (we talked about this over the last couple of episodes too - and what I actually mean by that)?
This episode explores and explains Flow - what athletes call being "in the zone". I tell you how to develop your innate ability to experience it and we explore how to deepen the experience and maintain it.
After all, once again - I mentioned him last week, we could simply look to one of my Online Program Owners who explains that he's "in Flow most of the time every day".
Actually, this episode should be entitled "How and Why to Meditate Properly and What to Expect"... because this conversation covers all that and more.
We lay to rest some of the nonsense around meditation - that there's one right way to do it - so many traditions have their "one right way" you could become not just totally confused but disillusioned with the whole notion!
I provide practical tips in how to sit, what to focus on, how long you should meditate for and when to do it.
More importantly, we pick up on this Podcast's previous episode when I alluded to energy. It is what you are - and meditation allows you experience this or, in plain English, to feel it.
All the science in the world - and there's an abundance of it at this stage - will tell you what meditation does for the mind and the very structure of the brain (we cover that too!) but what really matters is what you experience. And this episode is designed to help you do just that.
The answer to that is an obvious "No"... you change your life yourself.
But, as people who have worked with me over the last (almost) 28yrs will know, I can provide the signposts! And, if you're ready to follow the signposts, you're going to go on an amazing adventure - one your thinking mind couldn't even begin to imagine.
So, as we get together again, in Episode 146 - after a short break - we're exploring what changing your life actually means, what you need to do and how you will feel.
Yes, we explore the experience of being present and, obviously, its importance. After all, if you don't turn up to the present, where life is lived, how are you going to live it? Like a "normal crazy person", you'll only exist and your life will pass you by. How sad is that.
Of course, as always, everything that we explore in this episode, from effortlessness to Flow, from focus to energy, is all backed up by a body of science that is, not in itself life-changing... as we said at the beginning, you're going to have to change your life yourself.
And my aim in life is to make that as effortless for you as is humanly possible. And that's effortless indeed.
Success is effortless when you know how. That's a fact borne out by every single client or Online Program owner with whom I've worked who (to quote many a Program Owner) has "followed the process".
When we follow the process, when we make the right choices, we completely alter our experience of the here and now. When we get into the habit of making the right choices, it doesn't just "grow on us", as someone said to me recently, it grows in us. Because the neural pathways we use when making the right choices, themselves, grow and restructure.
Effortless success doesn't become second nature, it is our natural way of being, of living, of appreciating and enjoying a life where, at this moment in time, all is well.
That is not to say that life doesn't have its challenges - and we deal with these head on in this episode - I can tell you exactly how to deal with these, head on, from my own personal experience.
So, in this episode, as I say at the end, you have everything you need for the perfect life (and no more!) "in a nutshell".
In this episode, we race through a variety of different strategies that people use to make themselves "sound more interesting" and feel more important... from labels, to stories, to lies - to lies that normal crazy people actually end up believing!
There's obviously a grand purpose to this because, as you'll hear, there's a grand purpose to your life... your purpose in life is to be you. Because you are grand.
And your grandeur changes your life, your world. The moment you feel it, the moment you know, everything changes. And that means that you are a force for good, a force for change in a world that so badly needs both of those ingredients which are currently in otherwise short supply.
And, once you've realised this, you'll be perfectly placed not just to live the kind of life you'd love to live in an ideal world, you'll be able to carry those who matter most to you along with you too.
Worth getting out of bed for!!
In this episode, we're talking about fear - because it's hardwired into us!
Fear of failure - weird one, really, because normal crazy people are serial failures; fear of being different; fear of change and, indeed, being afraid of your own shadow (you should be!).
But, most interestingly, we explore fear of success. I'll say no more, I don't want to steal my own thunder but... there are strong evolutionary reasons for this one!
And, even more interestingly, we explore how there is no fear. It's just like stress, a figment of the shadow's sad imagination.
Now, if there is no such thing as fear, you can afford to be effortlessly "brave" and "courageous" (you'll understand why both that words are in ""!).
And, then, you'll be free to realise the greatness that is your calling.
I was going to call this episode "Great Expectations" - and, when we delve into the psychology of it all, you'll understand why. But let's cut to the chase: you live and experience your life according to your beliefs. What you believe colours and filters everything.
That means, until we take the piece of equipment between our two ears and remake it, what passes for our life will be coloured, filtered and poisoned by beliefs that hold us back, what we commonly call "self-limiting beliefs".
Because our moment-to-moment experience is dictated by our beliefs, wouldn't it make sense to believe things that we want to believe, beliefs that will move us forward and make our lives effortlessly wonderful?
That's what this episode is all about. Better than that, this episode explains, step-by-step, as the title suggests, how to believe.
"Ah sure I'm only human" as a client said to me a short while ago. "I still react to situations, but not in the way I used to".
What had happened in the meantime? He had embarked on the adventure of self-awareness and self-discovery and, in the process, discovered that, at times, he is super-human.
In a world where our brain developed in a lowest-common-denominator way, we need to rise above the madness - you don't have to look far to come to the same conclusion as I have - we live in a world gone mad or, perhaps, it always was mad (we explore that a little in this episode).
If you're going to experience flow and, as a result, do what you need to do with little effort; if you're going to live the kind of life you'd love to live and, as a result, "spread the joy" (a quote from an Online Program Owner) to those around you, you're going to have to become super-human.
But it's a lot easier than you think - all you have to do is choose to allow yourself to be that super-human that is already within, the part of you that is ready, willing and able not just to step out into the light, but to actually be the light.
We're unpicking the real-life client story from our last episode to ensure that we understand and can act on the two key take-aways that, together, ensure that you can effortlessly allow your life move forward towards your ideal life, encountering many perfect moments along the way, by doing what it takes to follow the signposts offered to you by opportunity and synchronicity.
The key take-away from this week's episode is that your life is entirely of your own making.
This is true regardless of whether you're a normal crazy person or following a process of developing your awareness and presence. Obviously, these two alternative journeys lead to completely different destinations or, should I say, offer us entirely different paths - one an adventure, the other, well, precious little.
In this episode, I also touch on personal relationships - your "nearest and dearest" if you like - and how the interpersonal dynamic effortlessly shifts as one embarks on this adventure of a lifetime.
The one thing that you must remember most is that your life is up to you.
This week's episode follows the story of one of my earlier clients - from his setting his mind to achieve the kind of grand life that his heart desired, through betrayal, disillusionment, mind-games, signs from the universe and the achievement, through action, of his perfect moment.
There are multiple lessons we can take from this week's episode: how best to set your mind; how we need to constantly, deliberately and effortlessly take action; how things that we thought happened to us actually happened for us; how synchronicity will intervene at... just the perfect moment and, if we look back to previous episodes, we need to, as many of my Online Program Owners tell me, "trust the process".
Take what nuggets you will from this week's episode and see where life will take you.
Every moment is an opportunity to start afresh: to start the day afresh, to start your life afresh.
Every moment presents you with a choice - an opportunity to choose to behave or misbehave, to act or react, to create or destroy. That means, in every moment, we must exercise choice.
Sound like a lot of hard work?
Exactly the opposite because, as you've heard me say many times, when we hit flow, when we're in the zone, everything becomes effortless. In that flow state, we don't have a care in the world, stress simply isn't.
So, how to we get there? How do we get to exercise deliberate choice?
By training our doing mind to a level of fitness so that it makes the choice, moment-to-moment for us. This is completely different from how the so-called Auto Pilot would habitually and automatically choose - choosing to inflict the sameness of everyday normality on us.
In this episode I explain exactly how to do that!
We're taking one step back in this episode to take a couple of effortless leaps forward!
Yes, we start by clarifying the so-called Law of Attraction - we need to be crystal clear that what's called for is moment-to-moment action, not wishing or wishful thinking!
This episode also further clarifies mindfulness. This is important and, here, we draw a distinction between pure mindfulness (which will not change your life) and, as the title suggests, applied mindfulness.
Or, to put it another way, presence here and now with your purpose in mind. The two moving parts of that (what Online Program Owners know as the fabled "Two-Piece Jigsaw") are explained in practical and applicable terms in this episode.
When the two pieces combine in the here and now (the only place that you can live your life), your life is going to change as a result of your own effortless right action.
A recipe for living a life full of perfect moments.
We start this episode with some conspiracy facts - not theories! For nature, evolution and education are and have been conspiring against you. Conspiring to prevent you living a happy and successful life.
And that's only the tip of the iceberg. What about normal crazy people? What about the tribes into which they band themselves? What if you were cut loose from the herd? What if you were a success and your friends didn't like it?!
That's all the bad stuff. But it's simply a prelude to the good stuff, an appetiser to this week's main course.
Because your brain will restructure itself according to how you use it. You can take charge of your own personal evolution. You can de-educate (rather than re-educate!) yourself. Your life is in your own hands.
In this episode, therefore, we don't just explore the way in which we can liberate ourselves, we explore the consequences. And those consequences are grand indeed.
Your experience of everyday life is entirely in your own hands. Not just that, your success and happiness are of your own making... or not! Same for your health, wealth, fitness, relationships... a list of either endless struggle or, to quote an Online Program Owner, a flowing experience of "deep joy".
You already know the science - we've talked about it often enough. You already know that we create our reality. And you already know that the most effective way to allow your life flow is just that... allow.
In this episode, we explore the concept of allowing, of letting go, of flowing of experiencing so-called perfect moments in the very here and now in which we all live our lives.
But we don't just talk concepts - concepts are useless (possibly even depressing if those concepts don't sound like the life you're living at the moment!) - we talk about how to experience what we're talking about.
Everything's meaningless until it is experienced.
And I'm not talking about experiencing flow or deep joy momentarily during an exercise such as meditation. I'm talking about having the tangible, real-life results to show for it. Everything's also meaningless without the results.
Ultimately, it all boils down to the question in the title of this week's podcast episode...
Let's give this episode its full working title... How the Law of Attraction Works in Your Everyday Life.
Yes, that's what this episode covers. It ties up all the components that, when put together in the right fashion, on a daily basis, will change your life beyond what your thinking mind could ever imagine.
In this episode, I cover how to set your mind - how to notice opportunity, how to create opportunity and how to recognise synchronicity. And, most importantly, how to act on all of the above - free from the inhibitions that would always otherwise stop the normal crazy mind in its tracks.
This exploration of the Law of Attraction is, then, a call to action - effortless action, so effortless that, oh so often, owners of my online program, The Psychology of Success, tell me that their success "feels as if it just happened".
I also touch on that book (the one that I suggest you shouldn't read) "The Secret" and explain that the real secret isn't a secret at all, it's something that flows naturally when you've looked after your own state of mind. What's that something that flows naturally? It's called presence and, when you have it, you are oh so very attractive.
OK, the title of this Podcast is "To Succeed... Just Let Go". In this episode, we talk about "getting out of your own way" or slipping (effortlessly of course) your thinking mind into neutral. That's all you need to do to start living your life joyfully, happily, successfully, effortlessly.
You don't have to learn anything new, you don't have to try to create anything or remake anything, you don't have to try to figure out why you are how you (only think) you are. You just have to slip that thinking mind into neutral.
When that happens, everything flows. For starters, you're going to have a better understanding of the kind of happiness and success that is for you, what will turn you on. And, when you begin to more clearly understand that, you can set your mind to the experience of how you will actually feel, including actually physically feel, when you arrive a your desired outcome.
After that, you simply have to turn up. That's all. We turn up - or we are present - when our thinking mind is idling in neutral. We are present when our doing mind is tuned in free from the constraint of our own thought.
Armed with that kind of presence, you are ready to effortlessly, for starters, trip your way lightly through today. As we say towards the end of this week's episode, today is, for today, the only day that matters... tomorrow will look after itself.
In this episode we explore how to allow yourself be and how, through simply being, we effortlessly do what we need to do to change our lives.
Allowing requires - it actually demands - real action: the fist action required is that of making the right choice: the choice to be present. Everything flows from presence. When we're present we know what is going on and what we need to do in the reality of the situation.
With such presence of mind, our actions are dictated by our intentions, the outcomes that we expect to come about.
With such presence, we preclude ourselves from indulging in the dubious luxury of having time to think about what we need to do - that thinking that would otherwise trip us up. We just do.
And, when we just do, we don't do what we don't need to do - the ultimate in time management! That means that we have time on our hands to do all the things we love doing, with the people we love and, through our presence, everyone's a winner... an echo of the exceptional success that we explored in Episode #131.
I'm exploring what I call exceptional success in this episode - what it means and what we must do to allow ourselves experience it effortlessly.
But there's much more to this episode because, when we are experiencing exceptional success, everyone's a winner - and we have what many would consider to be an extraordinary example of that in this episode.
But we go deeper - deeper into the science of how we're all "joined at the hip", whether we realise it or not.
Sadly - and I use the term advisedly - the vast, vast majority of people on this planet are blissfully (completely the wrong word!) of how we are so joined and how, when we do realise it and life accordingly, everyone's a winner.
And, in a world gone crazy, if that's not a good enough reason to tune yourself into the synchronicity of universal energy, I do not know what is!
The development of presence of mind and awareness in the present moment inevitably leads to a growing self-awareness and an ultimate self-discovery of your own potential and true nature.
Your true nature is energetic - you are energy in an energetic. Normally, our thinking, fearful minds tie our very energy in knots to the extent that our intentions don't flow out into a waiting universe.
Self-discovery enables us develop self-trust. And self-trust enables us feel what we need to do moment-to-moment. We simply know what is best to do and how best to do it to the point that we flow.
And that flow is a circular process - the more present I become, the more I become aware of the synchronicities that enable me do the right things and move forward effortlessly. And, the more that I move forward effortlessly, the more I create the synchronicities that enable flow ever further forward.
But - and here's a bit but - even when armed with a self-understanding and awareness, we can still succumb to one of the most primal of all self-imposed blockages... fear of change. We explore that in this episode too.
Ultimately, though, the message is, as always, effortlessly simple - keep doing what it takes to turn up to the here and now for, from our presence, everything flows.
There's no point in being persistent if you don't believe. This episode explains exactly what I mean.
There's no point in being persistent if you're not being shown the signposts that synchronicity provides.
Indeed, if you're not experiencing synchronicity, you need to alter your course.
These are the key themes of this practical episode, one where we cover the exact steps that we all need to take to do what we need to do to the best of our ability to get to where is best for us, one day at a time.
Aha... there it all is in one single sentence.
So - don't fret about your plans, don't worry about how to do this, that or the other, don't concern yourself with normal crazy ideas like "deserving" and "realistic", come along on this little adventure in today's episode and put your best foot forward effortlessly.
When you realise or become aware of the fact that your gut instinct is nudging you in a particular direction, there is an inevitability, sooner or later, that you will move in that direction. Your task is to do the inevitable sooner rather than later.
That "short circuiting" of the process comes from presence of mind. And, in order to appreciate what can and does happen when we have that presence of mind, we take a detour, in this episode, into the world of my inevitable, the move to France, tennis and tennis stars!
I can assure you, the detours are worth it!
Ultimately, I attempt to bring everything back down to the fundamentals of life in this episode - there's a sentence that I repeat twice because of it's importance: when we effortlessly do the inevitable, we will inevitably get what's best for us... or words to that effect!!
The key thing is that, as good grace and the flow of life would have it, all this is completely in your own hands. What wonderful news that is!
And, if you might be fearful of the potential within as a result of that realisation, don't worry - as this episode explains, you don't need to be brave or courageous to do the inevitable... it feels like it just happens because... it is effortless.
We're stepping through everything that you need to do to change anything or, indeed, everything in your life.
You want peace of mind? Perhaps it's financial freedom you're looking for. Or maybe you want to lose weight and get fit. Perhaps you want to build a successful business or move up a few gears in your career.
Yes - all that is covered in this one episode. And, as you'll discover, bringing about change in your life is inevitable and effortless once you do the things that we step through in the episode.
I've over 27yrs experience in helping people do this - and I've over 27yrs of evidence that this is how to do it, step-by-step, in practice... regardless of where you're starting from.
And, as you'll know if you've ever listened to even one of my podcast episodes, everything here is backed up by the very brightest and best in cognitive psychology and modern neuroscience.
So, are you ready to change your life? Are you ready to start right here, right now?
You need to divest yourself of the thoughts that have held you back... that's pretty much a direct quote from this week's Episode.
That said, that suggests that there is some "heavy lifting" involved in liberating yourself. There isn't.
In this Episode we explore how to "Just Let Go" - to allow ourselves receive all the good things in life to which we are entitled (yes, we deal with the issue of "I don't deserve" in this Episode too!).
In doing so, we shake off the constraints of how we think not just about ourselves and how the world works but even how we think about what we think constitutes or should constitute happiness and success. (Too much thinking in that last sentence!)
The process - yes, it is a process that we must follow daily - is simple to the point of effortless when we understand and realise that we can only take one little step at a time because our lives are lived in one little moment at a time.
When we do that, we experience a reality that will forever escape the thinking mind - that, right now, you're living the life that is best for you.
Yes, some further explanation is inevitably required - but that's what the podcast is for!!
When we find ourselves concerned about the opinions of others, we need to understand and realise that these concerns are a mirror of the inner misgivings that we have about ourselves.
If we were completely at ease with ourselves, aware of our true nature, wondering about what other people think of us would never even cross our minds.
So, in this week's episode, we explore apparently unrelated things like: making the right impression, have impressions being thrust upon ourselves in our formative years, self-confidence, self-awareness, fear, friendship, selfishness, random thought, relationships and presence.
And, yes, all of these things are related!
The key message from this episode is something that we all discover, beyond the cares of the normal mind, when we become acquainted with the nature of who and what we are... an eye-opener that will change your life and how you live it, moment-to-moment.
We explore gratitude, appreciation, flow and effortlessness in this episode. But most of all, we explore "following the process"... and trusting it.
As always, I'm encouraging you to practice - yes, we cover (lack of) discipline and impatience in this episode - both apparent inflictions of the human condition! (They're not, of course, you just think they are!).
But, more importantly, we talk about encouragement and how much easier it is to be encouraged, disciplined and patient when you have even some little shred of evidence to suggest that all will work out for the best if you do just "follow the process".
So that's what I'm about - we have evidence aplenty in this episode - real experiences that encourage us all to not just keep practicing, keep turning up but keep gently nudging ourselves a little further forward all the time.
Because there's so much more to you and your life than your normal way of thinking could ever even begin to imagine.
Oh and Freddy Mercury gets a look in too!
You'll know exactly what I mean if you listen through to, towards the end, the key point of this week's episode.
But there are other really important points along the way... how we can interrogate our mind (in the gentlest possible way of course, we're not talking about strapping ourselves to a chair and shining searchlights in our eyes!) to provide us with insights and "Aha Moments"... when we want them.
That's so important because, in the normal run of life (and we know that normal's not good!) we might have the odd "Aha Moment" at random. Why would you fumble around waiting for inspiration when you can inspire yourself at absolutely any appropriate moment?
And that's why, in this week's episode, before we get to the punchline, we talk about asking ourselves open questions, allowing ourselves be guided by the part of us that actually, simply and effortlessly, knows best and allowing ourselves do the right things and avoid the rest.
Makes not just for an effortless experience of the here and now, today. It enables is move effortlessly forward to the life that's best for us too. Because, if the inner you knows best and you let it, it will lead you to what and where is best in... the best possible way.
Simple when you... do it.
People get overwrought thinking about... thinking! The number of times I've been told "I'm a great over-thinker", as if it were something to be proud of, is so far from amazing... because it's normal!
Your mental agility, right here, today, will enable you do and say the right things. Muddled-mindedness will cloud everything today.
But that's only the start of it because, if you don't adopt a mental fitness regime, you're also damaging your longterm mental health.
So, in this episode we veer off the straight and narrow and explore an exercise that enables us review the past! I said review not relive! And the past that I'm talking about is the day in question, reviewed as the day draws to a close.
A highly effective mental exercise for getting a good, deep, cleansing night's sleep sits at the heart of this week's episode. But... it's only part of regime that lasts and must last all day, everyday. Because that's when we live our life.
I spend half my life talking about stuff that doesn't actually exist... annoyance, frustration, worry, anxiety, stress, panic - all a figment of God knows whose imagination (this episode explains exactly what I mean by that).
In this episode we explore how we make "sense" of our daily lives (we actually make complete and utter nonsense of them), we explore the process known to psychology as cognitive appraisal.
You'll discover that your mood "enables" you choose your thoughts which, in turn, create your mood! Yes, if you need to read that sentence again, off you go - the essence of madness.
But there is so much more to this episode than just that. Understanding the function of cognitive appraisal makes what we have to do to break the automatic cycle all the more effortless.
As you might imagine, it all comes down to choice. As you might not imagine, it's a simple little choice - get this choice right and everything else begins to effortlessly fall into place. And, you know what, you discover how to enjoy life.
Or should the title of this week's podcast episode be Apparently Random Events...?
We're exploring the difference between normal crazy daily wading through the muck in our own heads and the alternative - living the kind of life you'd love, in flow. Or, even for starters, just turning up to your own life.
When you turn up, amazing things happen (or, at least they're amazing to the numbskull normal mind!) - they're called opportunities and synchronicities and they change our lives, moment-to-moment.
But there's much more to this episode than that. We talk about how our growing awareness enables us become fully aware of our own innate madness; how the journey we're taking is singular and what we must do to put our best foot forward on that journey, not every day but every now.
Every now counts. There's no such thing as a random now, a random person or a random event. These "coincidences", when we meet the "next most important stranger in our lives" are opportunities. But are they all your opportunities, opportunities for you? Not at all... only a normal crazy numbskull would think that!
Well now, this episode goes all around the (entirely necessary) houses to arrive at a fundamental truth... that, when we use our minds normally, we experience nothing. Nothing at all. Nada, niente, rien de tout!
When we meet someone new, we don't! When we find ourselves in some new situation, we're not!
And, if we experience nothing (as adults), you cannot learn from your experience. How can you learn from what you haven't?
But this brings us to the nub of the issue - what am I talking about when I talk about experience?
And how can we develop (or re-develop) our ability to experience? And, when we do, what will we experience?
This is the most important point: you will experience what you really are.
Worth going 'round the houses!
January's normally a come-down for the normal person... "back to the real world"!
In this episode, we explore what the real world really is and... how you make it. Yes, you are the creator of your reality. If you are suffering from that "come-down" as the New Year starts, it's your creation. If you're taking the right actions to change your life and experiencing the difference, it's your creation.
It's your creation either way. So the question is: what do you want to create? What kind of life do you really want?
These questions immediately raise other questions in the normally-minded: Isn't this selfish? How can I achieve things that I've never achieved before? What about my previous track record of failure or of getting in my own way?
Other useless notions also raise their ugly little heads: I am not worthy! I don't deserve to live a great life! I don't deserve anything much at all!
That's OK - we deal with all of that nonsense in this episode. We also deal with how taking the one step that changes everything makes everything else you have to do simpler, more effortless.
So, hop on board, take a ride on the adventure of your lifetime... you're worth it.
Practical insights, ideas and tips to enable you make the most of the quiet time that you should be giving yourself between Christmas and the New Year.
How to allow yourself experience an understanding of the kind of life that you would love to live and how to dispel the negative notions that, because you may not have been successful in the past, you won't be happy and successful in the future.
Discover that your past is no guid to the future. Discover why. Understand that what got you to where you are will most definitely not get you to where you want to go.
And, most importantly, experience the feeling of that part of you that will simply and effortlessly lead you along the right path, one step at a time, one now at a time, to the life that will bear no resemblance to what you thought was living!
What an adventure you're going to take in this episode...
We start with dismissing the thoughts that hold us back, we learn how to best invest our energy and attention, we discover that, when we free up our electro-magnetic energy and set our mind's coordinates towards the life we'd love to live, or own energy and attention begins to create that life for us effortlessly.
We're talking about living life to the full through being - yes, simply being in the moment (ever wondered why you were called a human being?). We're talking about discovering that, through being, you understand that you know what's best for you to the extent that you actually feel it. Yes, you feel it in your gut.
And, when you start experiencing the result of your knowing, you learn that you can trust yourself to take you by the hand on the adventure of a life that you're thinking mind could never even begin to imagine.
The title of this week's episode actually sells this episode short for, even though awareness, developed through self-awareness, is the key to everything, this episode actually explores the difference between judgement and knowing.
Judgement is what gets us into trouble - from judging ourselves, to judging others, to misjudging what's going on, to reacting to our misjudgement. Knowing is a different kettle of fish altogether!
Knowing comes through being - being present.
That's why this episode is peppered with practical advise on how to develop your self-awareness, which develops awareness, which develops presence, which enables you know what's going on and know both what to do and how most effectively and least effortfully to just do it.
A recipe for turning up to your own life and... living it to the full.
I almost lost the run of myself recording this episode - it's a little shorter than usual because I'm talking at twice the normal speed... the excitement of it all!
And, as the title would suggest, you and I both need to pull ourselves together, get ourselves by the shoulders and give ourselves a good shake and slap ourselves across the face... repeatedly until we're flowing in regular flow.
In flow, we send out signals - they're emitted by intention-carrying photons of light, we literally glow.
When we're not in flow all we're doing is perpetuating our crummy little lives (I did say that I almost lost the run of myself recording this episode, didn't I!) and we're a danger to everyone around us.
So, what are you waiting for because, if you're trying to figure out a reason for starting, I'll give you one... you're missing your own life and the bits that are gone you ain't going to get back!
We're talking about giving yourself the luxury of something that isn't a luxury at all!
As we approach a time of reflection - yes, even for Normal Crazy People - we all need to give ourselves a little mental "elbow room" to allow ourselves fully understand the kind of experiences we want in our lives.
Mostly, when I ask people what they want out of life or what kind of lifestyle they'd like, their answers tend towards the material and reveal an embedded seam of normal crazy thinking. People want things. And, when they get things, they want more things. And they want these things... now!
That's not how developing your ability to create a life full of wonderful experiences works. It is, for most people, a gentle and revealing process. It is something that comes from within, not without. It is something that requires a little perseverance, patience and discipline... none of which comes naturally!
And, yet, it only requires a little sprinkling of these attributes - something that you can allow yourself liberally sprinkle in your own life by giving yourself that little bit of mental elbow room.
And a final word: this episode may well be worth listening to more than once in advance of the coming holidays!
We're actually talking about taking responsibility in this week's episode: responsibility and discipline (something none of us is very good at!).
And this episode comes with:
- THREE practical tips - that you can do right now, today and
- An opportunity to change your life - but only 20 people will change their life this week!
So, what are we really talking about?
Forget the past and experience the present. Or, perhaps more to the point, forget the past by experiencing the present.
This will transform your life in eight weeks - yes, that's what I said, it is scientifically validated in multiple research programs over the last thirteen years.
And, remember, if you want, I can be your discipline!
That's the key message in this Episode.
But this Episode is literally full of practical examples and, more importantly, tips to enable you do just that.
We've stories of madness, stories of good friends and clients learning how to be present. More to point, these are stories of learning, ongoing learning - something that is completely and utterly impossible for the normally operating mind.
And that really is the key learning here: the mind that nature gave you is designed to ensure that you cannot change your life. That means you're going to have to repurpose your mind, restructure your brain.
And that all starts with your forgetting the past.
This episode starts with an exploration of what we all want.
Yes, there is a commonality - quite different from normality! - to what we all want. At it's most fundamental level, we all want what my Program Owners simply describe as peace of mind.
Imagine being completely at peace. Imagine not having a care in the world in this moment in time. Imagine simply being - we won't even mention being without the thoughts that bind.
Peace of mind frees us. Liberated, we are. We are free to do just what we need to do effortlessly so that the good things of life feel as if they "just fall into my lap" (a client quote!).
So peace of mind is not the end that we must have in sight. It is the beginning. It opens the door that isn't there - the door that we thought we had to walk through to start living our lives to the full.
When we are then, all good things flow in due time.
In those three words you have an encapsulation of the journey - or, more to the point, adventure - that we take when we start allowing our minds open and blossom. Through developing our own awareness we become present. And, through our developing presence, we experience life rather than react to what we think of as our life. It is a journey in the truest sense of the word - a journey of discovery, self-discovery and, ultimately, the discovery of all we need to understand about how this world works and our place in it. And, we we progress - because it is a progression - we learn that all good things come to us without struggle and that all less-than-good things that come our way can be transmuted as a result of our own presence of mind and right action - a world away from the reactive behaviour of the unopened mind.
Wow - I've just listened back to this as I prepare it for publication... this Episode explains how the whole thing works! We cover awareness; the significance of the apparently insignificant; coincidence and synchronicity and how all the aforementioned hang together in an effortlessly simple way to simply facilitate us living our life our way, in the best possible way. Even that last sentence is, perhaps, a bit of a "Wow"! Am I getting carried away? No - I'm just flowing and, when we let ourselves flow, everything flows. Or, as we also explore in this Episode, when we let ourselves flow we become co-creators of the flow and synchronicity that leads us effortlessly forward. Worth a listen, right to the end. Because, in the end, this is awfully simple and only requires that we take a couple of simple steps.
Imagine living a life where you're free and easy with the autonomy and flexibility to work and play your own way. Well, that's what we're talking about in this episode. We explore things like: Hating your job and/or being bullied at work The nonsense of the corporate life (if you can call it that) Doing your own thing and doing it effortlessly and joyfully
Yes - there's joy to be had in everyday life, every day. And it's not just, as some would have it, a "state of mind". No... it starts with "state of mind" - a mindset that enables you do just what you need to do, in the right way, at the right time so that you move your life forward in the direction that you'd love it to go and... enjoy the journey, starting right now. Life, business and the business of living your life to the full is an adventurous journey and one that you can only take right here and now. This episode explores both how to do that whilst also providing you with practical insights into the nature of that wonderful adventure.
OK - the title of this Episode might have attracted your attention but, actually, it is you who can become so attractive that you effortlessly bring anyone, anything and everything into your life, thereby transforming it. Do you want health, wealth, happiness, carefreeness, the kind of relationships and experiences that simply and effortlessly flow? Who doesn't? Well, then, listen carefully and, more importantly practice diligently - what you put into your life you'll get out many times over. This is how life works anyway - it's just that, when we use our minds the way nature intended, we put very little in. Of course, the 4 secrets are not really secrets at all, although some or all of them be be something of a revelation to you!
Oooh, now there's a title. But, yes, this Episode explains: The (normal crazy) madness of planning The exact way to discover the kind of life that's best for you How to set your mind to the outcome(s) you would love to experience We look at this from a business point of view but, even more importantly, a life perspective... your life. Along the way we, once again, remind ourselves of who is important in your life and how to look after those around you (in business and in your personal life) - most importantly those you love or, perhaps, only claim to love as things stand!!! Listen and put into practice.
You could be depressed. You could be stuck. You could be stressed. You could be constantly getting in your own way. Or you could get one teeny-tiny little choice right and... change everything - immediately, right now. What is that choice? Well, you're going to have to listen to this episode to get your head around why one single simple choice is life changing (I didn't say it could be, I said it is). You see, all the problems in your life boil down to one simple thing... thought. To people who tell me that they are over-thinkers, I simply reply "That's Normal!". To worriers... same response. And to people who think that they are suffering from depression or any of the aforementioned apparent afflictions... same! But it's not thought that's holding you back. It's not how you think that's getting in your way. It's simply that you're not making the right choice. The one that is explained simply and practically (not just the choice but how to make it too!) in this episode.
The title of this week's Episode is simply a statement of fact. How could someone who is not in charge of their own mental faculties avoid doing awful things to other people and then... do awful things, repeatedly, to themselves!? Mindlessness is the root cause of inappropriate behaviour starting with the little throwaway remarks that we throw at our little children, throwaway remarks that we, as mindless adults, will forget 30 seconds later (assuming we even notice them in the first place!) but which will scar the little child for life. Seriously. Then, in later life, people do awful things to us. And what do we do? We replay what they've done to us. We let what they did to us fester. We do it all over again to ourselves, again and again and again. Is there an alternative to all this madness? And, if there is, how does this work in practice? Well you had better listen to this week's Episode, hadn't you?
That's more of a statement than a question! Because, seeing as how all of us come from the standing start of using our minds normally, we only think that we know what we want. And, as we'll see in this episode, you could waste a whole life striving (which requires effort) for something that, when you do achieve it, you discover that it isn't what you thought it would be at all... not what you really wanted! In this episode, we explore how to world we live in really works - not how you think it works. We explore how when, to coin a phrase, we "just let go" we discover that what is better or best for us will find us... effortlessly. Yes, over the years, I've spoken about effortlessness a great deal - here we talk about real people's experiences in experiencing what I would call a life-changing Perfect Moment. So, buckle up - are you ready for 30mins of insight and instruction so that, straight away, you can start living your life your way: worry-free, carefree, peace-of-mind sorted.
Something that we're all looking for - whether it be so-called "work/life balance" or simply the even keel on which we would love to live the kind of life, well, that we'd love to live! In this episode you will find both the key to balance - it's about your head, your body and your energy - and the practical examples of how it actually works... stuff you can put into practice straight away. We'll bust a few myths along the way - particularly about the apparent life-or-death importance of work; the myth of "work" itself and, most importantly the myth that you can "do it for the kids" without putting yourself first. We're talking about Black Holes - but not the ones in space! They're lurking right next to you as we speak!
Time is relative - your day could be dragging, mine could be flying. Your perspective of time is dictated by your state of mind and, as luck would have it, that's something over which you can exercise complete control. You can control time. But that's only part of the story. Because people who have taken charge of their own state of mind, people who are in Flow, people who are "in the zone", experience a quality of life that, for starters, can be encapsulated in two words: Timelessness and Timeliness. This episode explores these twin phenomena: how "time flies when we're having fun (that's only half true!) and how, when we're in Flow, everything comes to us, happens for us, falls into place at just the right time, in just the right way, in just the right order. This is happening all around you, as we speak. But you'll never know that and you'll never realise the life-changing benefits of it until you take control of your own state of mind. Finally, one of those life-changing things is happening before your very eyes right now... click the link associated with this episode!
We've already covered why families are, generally speaking, dysfunctional. In this Episode, we explore how to deal with any or every family situation so that, for starters, you look after yourself (you shouldn't have to be reminded but you are the most important person in your life). We explore that tactics that we need to use that, instead of becoming the Clown in the Circus or Normal Crazy Family madness, you become an interested onlooker - one that knows exactly what you want out of any and every situation. Does this sound selfish? Not at all, until you fix your own oxygen mask, you can't help anyone else with theirs. But, when you do, you'd be surprised what might transpire. No wonder I regularly hear from Program Owners that they "surprise" or "amaze" themselves or good things feel "as if they just happen". It's all about state of mind and understanding the kind of outcomes you would prefer and the kind of relationships you would prefer to have. OK. All that said, there's something very special, with a Big Big Bonus at the end of this week's episode. You need to listen through and take (a little effortless) action.
So many people have asked me to record an episode about what could be described as normal crazy families. Indeed, over the last nearly 27yrs, so many clients have needed assistance in navigating the everyday madness of it all. But, before we talk about solutions, we need to understand the origins of the problem. And that's what this Episode is about. Where do the roots of resentment take hold? Where are the seeds of self-sabotage sown? How does the subtle erosion of the field of dreams take place? As always, the episode is peppered (and salted!) with real-life anecdotes that, on the face of it, can seem insignificant. But a throwaway remark by a parent which they'll forget five minutes later, will be remembered by the impressionable child five decades later. So, buckle up for this two-parter and we'll dole out the solutions next week.
It's only natural to get impatient, frustrated and downhearted. As we strive to achieve our goals and objectives, it's only natural to fear that we'll never get there. It's only natural because we all have ample evidence that falling short or failing is the normal way of experiencing life. And therein lies the only issue with which you have to deal: normal. Everything that I've just mentioned only happens if you continue to use your mind normally. When you use your mind differently, everything changes. When you stop your self-defeating thoughts from blocking your experience of your life in the here and now - and by that I actually mean when you become present, when you turn up to your own life, you start taking right action - doing the right things, in the right way, at the right time. As many many clients and Program Owners have repeatedly told me, you start "surprising yourself", you start "amazing yourself". And that amazement turns to awe when you see the fruits of your abnormal actions and how they bring about what you want from your life. The key thing in all this is really simple: when you "get out of your own way" your energy merges with universal energy and... the universe provides. And the universe is never late!
Yes, there's a Normal Crazy Person living with you. They're inside your head, have been your traveling companion, got you to where you are. But what got you to where you are won't get you to where you want to go. Full stop! We encourage this Normal Crazy Person (aka The Conceptual Self) to derail us every day because we use our Automatic Pilot every day - I explain just how this happens in this week's episode. So, it is inevitable that we "fall off the horse"... every day. But, falling off the horse is an opportunity to get back up, dust yourself off and start over. Losing your mind is an opportunity to realise that you've lost your mind and, in the process, find it... truly. So let's be thankful for the fact that we stumble and fall. Let's embrace the opportunity to learn a little more about who we really are, go a little further and discover who we might really be and what we can truly achieve.
This episode is twinned with #94 (last week's) where we talked about the so-called Two-Piece Jigsaw - the two steps required to live your life your way, starting straight away. This week, we learn how the first piece of the jigsaw feeds the second, enabling you develop an understanding of the kind of life your heart desires - and innate understanding that you already have, it's just that your thinking mind has been hiding it from you. As we voyage through this episode I allay one of the primary fears that people express to me as they progress... the fear that they will set their mind off in the wrong direction because they don't know what they want - they might think that they know but that would be the rock you'd perish on. One more thing, in this episode you'll learn about the so-called Thousand Piece Jigsaw - but don't be alarmed, you only need the four corner pieces and you don't even need to know the big picture!!
There are only two steps that you need to take to change your life. Online Program owners will be familiar with what I call The Two-Piece Jigsaw. In this episode we're going into the practical details of the first piece of the jigsaw - the one thing that you must to do start changing your life - and it will start changing your life straight away. We're talking about meditation. And, I'm explaining why meditation is so life-changing and how to meditate. You'll discover practical ways to meditate anywhere, everywhere, anytime and, in particular, any time you actually need to press what I describe as The Reset Button to turn yourself on. Ultimately, that's what meditation does for you: it turns you on, tunes you in to the here and now where your life is actually taking place in real time. Ready for some practical baby steps?
Have you ever had a flash of the kind of experiences you'd love to have in your life? Have these kind of things, from time to time, occurred to you? These are messages, not from beyond but from within - they are intuitions or insights from the part of you that knows. In this episode we explore exactly how we can allow ourselves lead us forward to the kind of life that our thinking minds thinks is "unrealistic" - the kind of life we think we don't deserve, the kind of life that our thinking mind simply couldn't see how it could happen. But you don't need to know the how, the what or the when - you only need to know the why. This week's episode explains it all and gives you a blueprint for how to let what's inside come to the surface of your understanding and, then, your experience. But beware - there is a final word of warning in this week's episode!
Yes, that's right - in this episode we're exploring the exact how - exactly what you need to do to live your life to the full right here and now. We explore what "living life to the full" actually means in practice and what you can expect from and of your life right here and now. You will learn how to let the past go - actually, as I say, simply "dissipate and evaporate". You will learn to accomplish and achieve what is best for you - not what you think you want. And you'll discover an old friend... the "flame within". And, as always, we're talking practical things that you can - that you must - do to effortlessly enable yourself fly. And, you know what, there's a (very strong) hint in the title of this Podcast as to the key thing you need to do. Here you learn how.
We all have decisions to make - in fact every moment of every day, the most fundamental of which is the choice to turn up to our own lives. But, that aside, this episode actually explores the how to of not just effective decision-making but, more importantly, effective doing - actually taking the action (effortlessly) that you've decided to take. This is a million miles removed from how the normal mind thinks, rethinks, dithers, obstructs, gets in your own way and... stops you changing anything in your life. Until you change how you use your mind you will not change anything in your life. Full stop. Luckily (although, actually, luck doesn't enter into it), science now knows exactly what we can do - anyone can do - and that includes you - to effortlessly make the right choices and decisions, in real time, and implement them. And that's effortless too. In essence, what you've actually got to do is get out of your own way.
This episode covers the whole scope of your life up to right now - from even before you were born. We explore how, when we use our minds normally, we are bounded by misconceptions about what is and isn't "realistic"; how we grew up with the mistaken notion that we might be undeserving and, most importantly, how we can divest ourselves of those imaginary shackles and start tuning ourselves into the world as it really is, you as you really are and... creating the life that you would love to live. Along the way, we touch on topics that include (obviously) psychology and neuroscience - but this week's episode ventures into parenting, religion, education and a world of norms and conformity (not the real world!!). So, buckle up and get ready to sit yourself down at, as I say right at the end of this episode, life's great banquet.
In this episode, we talk about health, wealth, peace of mind and happiness - and how to achieve all of these wonderful things effortlessly. I explain how a healthy mind creates a healthy body. I explain how we set our mind to achieve our most desirable outcomes and how health is simply part of that package. I explain how the clear state of mind that comes with peace of mind enables us know what'a going on, know what to do and know just how to do it. And, most importantly in this episode, I explain how we then see the little signs and signposts in our daily life and see them for what they are - the little synchronicities that lead to the transformation our your life. Join my on an adventure that takes us to the other side of the world and back... to dance classes!! One more thing: you can write your life story - the one you really really want to live - by taking me up on my very special not-to-be-repeated special offer for lifetime access to my online program, The Psychology of Success. Just click the link to find out more: https://www.willie-horton.com/Life-Stories/
Over the last couple of years, we've spent a lot of time talking about how to develop your ability to control your state of mind and, then, "set your mind" in a manner that enables you harness your own inner power to create the kind of life you'd love to live. In this episode, we explore what that means for your physical health and well-being. Can your mind manage your health? Can you heal yourself? How does your state of mind impact your body? And how does "setting your mind" enable you overcome the apparently unovercommable? The fact of the matter is that we live in a world where the old expression "mind over matter" is proven again and again to be true. In this episode I explore some of the Life Stories of people who are the living proof. And, one more thing, over the next couple of weeks I'll be telling more Life Stories as we get to a point where you can embrace the opportunity to write the Life Story you'd love... for you.
I am simply quoting from clients and Online Program Owners when I say that we can become "Super Human" as a result of developing our presence and doing what we need to do to get ot where we want to go. I'll quote again... people tell me that they "Amaze" themselves or "Super Surprise" themselves by, for example, saying just the right thing in the right way at the right time, hearing themselves saying what they couldn't ordinarily imagine themselves saying in an effortless and effective way. What's happened is that they have freed their minds of the cares and worries of their ordinary everyday lives so that the ordinary becomes extraordinary and, as a consequence, doing and saying what they couldn't ordinarily imagine themselves doing and saying becomes their new normal - and their life, happiness and success simply and effortlessly flows. All this comes about as a result of our using our minds in a novel way - a way that physically restructures the brain so that we have a more highly evolved piece of equipment between our own two ears, one that is wholly suited, geared up and tuned in to the life we want to life right here, right now.
"I thought that I was drowning in the choppy waves of ordinary everyday life and then I opened my eyes only to discover that I was effortlessly bobbing up and down in a sea of opportunity" - I word-for-word quote from a client. Opportunity is all around us. The events that so-called "coincidences" that will lead us forward towards the life we would love to live are happening all around us. And we are wandering around aimlessly with our eyes wide shut! In this episode, we don't just explore the incidence of synchronicity, we look at the latest scientific evidence for what it is, how it works and our intrinsic role in the process. And I talk about what this all looks and feels like in practice in our everyday lives and how, when we're in flow, our ordinary everyday lives become extraordinary. And, you know what? The only extra required is that you turn up to your own life... now.
This episode is full of insights and tips that will change your life. We explore the waste of worry - but, most importantly, we explore what happens when you put your worries down, what happens when you are carefree. In this episode, I tell you what worry does and how it does it... and, even though it's "crazy normal" to worry, you really don't want that in your life, at all. You'll learn what being carefree actually is. You'll learn how to achieve that state of mind, that way of being. And I tell a story - and I've loads of them - about how being carefree enables you sit back and watch what you want "falling into your lap". Want to know all this, time to listen and learn.
Yes, in this episode, we have a real-life example of what happens - and how effortlessly it happens - when you turn up to your own life. Listen and accompany Mark on the journey of a lifetime - from the crippling thoughts that hold us all back, to the enlightenment that comes from simply bothering to turn up to the here and now, armed with an essential understanding of... the kind of life you'd love to live. Anyone armed with a normal mind (and that, by the way, is all of us), is prone to shooting themselves in the foot! We've got to disarm the thoughts that get in our way - the ones that, until disarmed, will always take us back to the same destination of the rough and tumble, ups and downs, of the mundane normal crazy life. Take this short journey - less than half an hour - and discover how this works in practice, what effortlessness actually looks and feels like and how opportunities are all around us all the time. All we have to do is, as the title suggests, turn up!
Today, you can rid your life of worry, anxiety and stress. Today. Today, you can start living the kind of life that you really want to live. No more feelings of inadequacy; no more thinking that you might be undeserving; no more feelings of guilt. Today, you can get out of your own way. For it's not your thoughts that are getting in your own way or holding you back. Rather, it's only the manner in which you pay attention to your thoughts that is stopping you living the life you'd love to live. All you have to do is redirect your attention. This episode explains how all this works: how the way we normally use our minds stops us in our tracks, removes us from our lives. And, more importantly, what you can do right now that will enable you start living and experiencing a completely different life... straight away. OK, you might think that that sounds completely unrealistic. But that's only another one of those normal, crazy, debilitating thoughts!
Yes, you can glide through your day, every day, like a graceful ballerina - never putting a foot wrong, always being the right person, in the right place, at the right time, effortlessly doing what you need to do without giving it a second thought (or even a first thought). The secret to achieving anything and everything that you'd love to achieve all boils down to one key thing: turning up! We know - if you didn't listen, have a listen to Episode #81 - that, when we use our minds normally, we are marked absent from our own lives, missing in action (or, actually, reaction!), absent without leave! We also know how to re-train ourselves to turn up to our own lives. Once you do that, the difference is immediate and often stunning. I can tell you this... it will certainly change your life.
A big and bold statement - after all, how do you treat yourself to the life you'd love when you have to contend with the madness of normal crazy people, day-in, day-out? Well, in this episode, I explore exactly how to deal with the bad behaviour of people who are not in control of their own state of mind. I explore exactly how to deal with the frustration, annoyance, worry, anxiety and anger that that creates in your own head... if you're not control of your own state of mind. And, most importantly, we explore how to control your state of mind and, most importantly, what impact that will have on your life - starting pretty much straight away. I also mention in today's episode that I'm running a free online training program at present - and, although there should be a link on your podcast player to enable you sign up for that, I've been told some people have not been able to find it. So, you can sign up using this link: https://tinyurl.com/4j2vm8s2 Either way, the key thing you need to know that everything is in your own hands, even the shape of your brain.
I've decided we need to explore the real stories of some of my clients and Program Owners because, for all the wonderful science in the world that confirms how we can manage and set our mind to achieve our goals and objectives, the real action is in the real adventures of real people. Today, we start with a salutary tale - one where my friend was literally bombarded by the grand opportunities that would effortlessly enable live the kind of life he really wanted to live. And we explore the two things - yes, there are just two! - that you need to do to live your life your way. I've also got a new free online training program for you - just click the link to start your own adventure. Then, you'll be able to answer the above question with a big "Now". And, as we know, now is all that matters.
Actually, the title of this episode could be shortened... how to live your life. Because, if you're not in flow, if you're not present, you're absent - absent from your own life. And the really horrible thing is that being absent is normal! To be abnormal you have to refurbish your brain!! In fact, it's a little more fundamental than that and a lot easier than you might think. You need to fundamentally alter the fabric of your brain through changing how you use it. We know that the brain constructs and reconstructs itself according to how the user uses it. Truth be told, if you're using your mind normally, the user is marked absent. One small change to how you use the piece of equipment between your ears changes everything - even the very structure of your brain. It changes your life and you end up experiencing flow most of the time every day. Your transform your ordinary everyday life into something extraordinary.
Psychology often wraps facts up in unnecessarily complicated language so let me say this really simply: You can achieve anything that you know you can achieve. It is that simple - nothing needs to be added. And yet... The normal mind doesn't know - it thinks it knows! The normal mind thinks that you're inadequate (we all have our perceived inadequacies); it thinks that you're undeserving and, in constantly getting in your way, the normal mind constantly proves to you that you can't achieve the goals that you'd love to achieve. In this episode, I don't just start simple, I keep it simple. I provide you with a really easy starting point from which you will take the journey to the life you'd love to live.
I mean it - the difference between war and peace all boils down to the baggage that we carry around with us - the baggage that blinds us, that gets in our own way. Are we talking about big wars, like the war in Ukraine? Well, as you'll discover, we could be. But, whilst today's episode is not going to change the world overnight, what we're exploring has the proven power to change your world... overnight. Using the training that we talk about in this episode, you will go from being muddle-minded, addled and ill-at-ease to being focused, present, at peace with who you really are. And, on top of all that, you'll be fully geared up to create the life you want, peace of mind and all. So listen in. Or do more than that. Click the links to the current free video sessions that I have online that are no more than a warm-up for the free Zooms that I'm hosting over the coming days where you, anyone or everyone, can "Ask Me Anything" about changing your life, putting your baggage down and living the life that you'd love to live. It's up to you.
Yes, ordinary everyday life is full of ups and downs, hurdles and challenges or, not to put too fine a tooth in it... crap. And that crap is real. But which is easier? Rise to the occasion and deal with the crap or think about how crap it is and layer crap upon crap to the point that you (believe that you) cannot cope? The answer's obvious. But that doesn't mean that's what you're going to do because that is not how the ordinary mind sees things. And, most importantly, it's certainly not how your ordinary mind sees you and your capabilities. That's why this episode explains - in basic fundamentals - how to get out of your own way; how to start rising to living your ordinary life in, yes you'd better believe it, an extraordinary way. We're talking about the keys to living the kind of life you'd love to live. And, as you'll discover, it all boils down to one awfully fundamental choice...
It will probably come as a surprise to you but, in our everyday lives, there is simply no such thing as fear. Yes, we're often "afraid" of doing or saying what we deep down know that we need to do or say - or we're often simply afraid of making a fool of ourselves. But none of that is real fear. You're simply experiencing a reaction to what I describe, in this episode, as "the ghost in the machine". Or, to put it another way, in purely practical psychological terms, what you think of as fear (and, by the way, thinking makes it feel awfully real) is just a product or construct of... your own thought. In allowing your mind think that way, you're feeding the ghost in the machine. Many people will say to me that their perceived fears come from their upbringing or childhood and, as long as they continue to allow their minds run in an automated normal way, they will be right. But... their not children any more! You are an adult. It's time to man up - or woman up - and take responsibility for your own state of mind. When you do that, you'll realise something that will completely liberate you from your own thoughts... there is no fear.
Even if you’re a world-class meditator (not sure what that is, actually!), there will be days when you’re a bit “flat”, a tad “out of sorts” or even mildly anxious, often without being able to pinpoint as to why that might be. So what! At least you’re aware of your state of mind - most “normally-minded” people are blissfully (clearly not the right word!) unaware. And, being aware, there’s something you can do about it - simply a question of making the right choice. But what if you’re not that world-class meditator? What if you’ve never meditated at all? (Don’t worry, we’ll deal with that!!) What if you’re anxious, stressed, distracted, uneasy, annoyed? Well, it is what it is and it’s only natural. You’re using you brain the way nature intended, the way it evolved. But, today, you’re taking charge of your own personal evolution. Seriously. Not a slogan, not a feel-good affirmation, simply a statement of scientific fact. Today, you’re going to, as I way in this episode, discover that, when you open the door to your own mind, there’s a whole new life waiting for you.
Yes, you read the title of this episode correctly. Most people think that they know what they want. But it is that very thinking that gets in the way of us knowing. The fact is, of course, at an instinctive level, we do know. We know exactly what is best for us. More than that, we know exactly how to get it. Again, it's only our thinking mind that thinks it knows best. That's why you need to get out of your own way. As a client told me "When you get out of your own way everything becomes so much easier". Easier to the point of effortless. Effortless, a word I love and a state of mind that is confirmed as scientific fact again and again. When you get out of your own way, when you stop giving your attention to the same repetitive preprogrammed thoughts that are rattling around in your own head, when you begin to see the present moment clearly for what it is... everything becomes clear. The struggle and stress is over. The life you really want begins. Time to allow yourself see the wood for the trees.
A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 26th anniversary of working for myself - doing what I do with my clients, what I explain in this podcast. As I reflected on the past 26 years it occurred to me that there is a common thread running through the conversations that I've had with oh so many people over that time. That common thread? Above all else (because if you get this right it deals with all else!) people seek peace of mind. In a world of ups and downs, highs and lows, everyday challenges, cares and worries, peace of mind is, on the one hand, elusive. On the other, as a statement of psychological fact, it is beyond the reach of the human mind when used normally. The normal mind is noisy. It does not do peace of mind. You need to use your mind a different way. You need to find the innate presence of mind that doesn't just dwell in all of us, it is, as we discuss in this episode, our natural way of being. We simply have to rediscover it. That is what this episode is all about... how to do the one thing that only you can do that, when you do it, everything else falls effortlessly into place.
We know about healthy mind, healthy body - we discussed that topic in considerable detail in last week's episode. This week we explore what managing your state of mind does to your physical brain and your functioning mind, bearing in mind (if you pardon the pun!) that, as defined by psychology, "mind is what the brain does". In this episode we explore how to manage your state of mind (you're the only one who can!). We discuss the "right state of mind" (there's only one) and how best to get into that state of mind... how to stay there is something we'll explore in further detail again. I then go on to explain some of the wondrous discoveries of modern neuroscience - from how regular meditation restructures the brain's key subcortical components, to how we can literally reboot the ageing brain. What does all this mean in practical terms... well, we get into that in detail too - and it provides you with what we might call a modern evolutionary advantage.
You've heard the expression, you are what you eat. Well, you are what you think or, more correctly, you are how you think. If your mind is ill-at-ease, your body will suffer dis-ease. There are direct causal links between what we're thinking and our physical wellbeing. Over many years at this stage, research has established links between stress and heart disease and cancer. The links between stress and digestive disorders has been know for a very long time indeed. Your weight and how you manage it - or not! - is directly related to how you think - all the diets in the world won't work if you're not in the right frame of mind. In this episode, we explore what this means in terms of your practical everyday life right now - and off into the future. More importantly, we explain how to change how you think.
Astonishingly, more than 75% of people say that they have been bullied at some time during their adult life. Bullying is something that ruins people's lives. But bullying is something that you can deal with effortlessly - but only when you're in the right state of mind. In this episode, we explore why bullies bully. We explore what is actually happening when bullies bully. And, most importantly, I explain how to manage bullies... completely out of your life. We explore the psychology of what you must do to rid your life of the threat imposed upon you by a bully. I explain how the bully is, essentially, feeding off your energy and attention. And I provide you with the couple of key practical steps that you can start taking today to rid your life of bullies and bullying. A little longer than usual, this episode is worth its length in gold!!
We're talking work/life balance in this episode or, more to the point, we're exploring how you can live the kind of live you'd love to live where work is an integral part of how you live your life in flow. The key factor in enabling you create the kind of work/life balance and, indeed, life that you'd love to live is the attitude of mind that you bring to the party. Attitude is the key success factor. In work and life. So, if you want to experience greater levels of happiness and success in your life, there are just a couple of important things you need to do - and, most importantly, you can do those things... now. In today's episode I explain how to change how you think and, right at the end of the the episode, I provide you with one of the most important pieces of advice you will ever get in terms of moving towards doing you're own thing in your life... whatever turns you on. So, buckle up, we're in for a ride today that will, if you hop on board, change your life.
Today probably feels much like any other day because your mind is designed to make it so. That leads to a creeping lack of ease of mind - so many people tell me that they're seeking peace of mind - and, when one's mind is ill-at-ease, we bring about dis-ease in the body. That's just one of the things we explore in this episode. And, of far greater importance, is what happens when we cultivate ease-of-mind. What happens as a result is transformative. First and foremost, we transform our understanding of who we are. We discard that which we thought we were and, in doing so, discard stress, worry, anxiety and... dis-ease. There is just one thing in life over which you have any control - it is something over which you can have absolute control - you're the only one who can. Listen, learn, transform.
Imagine discovering your own inner potential and realising that doing what you need to do to live the life you'd love to live could be... effortless. All scientifically confirmed: effortlessness is a scientific fact when you're in flow - when you're free of the thoughts that hold you back - most importantly, when you're free of your own self-limiting thoughts. You are not who you think you are. You are someone completely different, someone effortlessly capable of living your life your way on your terms right here and now. How do you discover who you really are? Well, for starters, you need to know how and why you think you're someone else! Then you need to take a little step (that's all) to become aware, self-aware. That is what this episode is all about.
As we approach a New Year, no doubt you, like everyone else will be looking forward to new things you want to achieve. Psychologically speaking, there is a whole load of things wrong with that last sentence. The part of your brain that will enable you effortlessly change your life is blocked when we look forward. That same part of your brain that will enable you effortlessly do what you need to do to get to where you want to go doesn't understand want either! It understands now. So, in this podcast episode, I am giving you direct instructions on how you will give direct instructions to your doing brain that will enable you do what you need to do and change your life. In particular, having explained how it all works, this episode finishes with detailed instructions for an exercise you should do in the next couple of days. Your life will never be the same again. In, obviously, the best possible way.
Any, every, choice you make, any decision you take, small, medium or large is, when you're using your mind normally, a step in the wrong direction. And, as you know, this podcast is all about putting your best foot forward and taking a step in the right direction. So, this episode tells you what you need to do to: Start making the right choices and decisions in your life... today Start doing what you know you need to do, regardless of how bold, brave, courageous or just plain uncomfortable you think it might be Get out of your own way so you start living your life to the full... your way on your terms
We also talk about the challenges of work, family, setting up a business, health... this episode covers a multitude. In the space of these 25mins you could start changing your life.
Consider all that's been said and written about developing "self-confidence"; all you've heard about self-improvement; all the stuff churned out by the personal development industry, the self-growth industry. And consider what modern psychology and neuroscience knows about the so-called Conceptual Self... the person you think you are, the person that... isn't really there. You don't need to develop anything, you don't need to improve yourself, you certainly don't any personal growth. You're perfect as you are - it's just that the person who isn't there, the Conceptual You, would have you think otherwise. The prattling nonsensical noise in your own head is drowning out who you really are. Worse, it actually, daily, makes you think you're something less... a something in need of self-improvement. Wake up - smell the coffee - experience the present moment. In the present moment the real you will present herself or himself to you... and it will be an eye-opener.
It's a simply choice - there are only two alternatives - we're not talking about some complex multiple-choice question: do you want to stay dead or do you want to start living your life to the full? Tough decision! In this episode, we'r exploring the flow of energy and attention - how the normal mind directs our attention and energy back in on ourselves until we end up buried up our own nether regions!! Actually, though, we're exploring what happens when you stop feeding the beast of your own self-defeating thoughts and start investing your energy in the flow of universal energy in the only place and time that you can... the here and now. Do that and you start turning up to your own life. Do that and you begin to experience (not just understand or realise!) that all the annoyance, frustration, worry and stress of everyday life doesn't actually exist anywhere other than in your own head. More importantly, when you invest your attention and energy outwards, you let the real you out too... and what a life-changing difference that makes.
In this episode we're exploring some fundamental truths about life... your life. First of all, your life is lived in moments - nows - just as the universe exists in moments or nows. Secondly, there's no such thing as an unimportant now - we never know the day or the hour when something significant is going to happen. We might think we do - and we explore that in this episode too. Most fundamentally of all is the real you - the fundamental you. This real you knows. It knows the kind of life you'd love to live and it knows exactly what you need to do to experience that life now - everything happens in the here and now. How do you liberate the real you to enable you live the life you'd love to live? Well, this week's episode covers that too!
Most people have very low expectations of themselves - there are "normal" psychological and even physiological evolutionary reasons for that. So, when you do something that you consider to be "brave" or "courageous", you surprise yourself. But... prepare to be amazed! The really exciting thing about this is that, when you do start surprising yourself, it becomes a habit, a way of life and that leads to the amazing kind of life that you'd really, really like. How do I know this? Well, for starters, I've decades of research to confirm the scientific validity of it all. And I've a quarter of a century's work with clients and Online Program Owners under my belt that confirms the real-life results that flow effortlessly. Yes, I said effortlessly! So... prepare to amaze yourself.
We're following on from last week's episode where we talked about how, when using your mind as nature and evolution intended, you don't have a clue who you are... you only think that you actually are your so-called Conceptual Self which is, as we now know, a figment of someone else's imagination. This week we're going further - we're not only revisiting a couple of the key issues in relation to not know who you are, we're exploring who you could really be... what your inner potential truly is. Most people don't know that their potential is practically unlimited. That's because most people have never glimpsed their inner potential - never even had a suspicion or a whiff of it! But your true potential begins to present itself to you when you clear your mind, when you empty your mind of the noise in your head and present yourself to the here and now. Yes, I've used that word (present) deliberately because, when you do empty your mind of your thoughts and present yourself to the present moment, you become present, you have presence, you begin to (quite literally from the perspective on modern quantum biology) shine your life. Shine your light into your own life now - start living your life to the full. It is going on right now.
Do you want to change? It could be something small, like the discomfort that you feel in mixing with certain types of people or in certain situations. It could be something of a personal project, like losing weight or getting fit. You might wish for a new direction - in your work, your career or you might really love the freedom of working for yourself. It could be a more enjoyable relationship or, indeed, a new relationship. Either way, anyone I've ever met is alway seeking some for of new beginning. Well, that new beginning starts right now - because everything starts from the one and only place where you live your life - the here and now. And it begins by liberating yourself from your own ideas about yourself which, as we'll see in today's episode, aren't even your own ideas. Let go - let your new life begin.
No, I'm not going to explain what the title of this week's podcast means - like all the best things in life, you're going to have to put in a little (effortless) work to find out... the effortless work being to listen through to the end of this week's episode!! And, as I said, we're talking about the best things in life, we really are. For starters, this week's episode picks up on our last two: how the normal mind doesn't know what's going on and doesn't know what to do: what choices to make, what decisions to take, what option to opt for... But that's just the normal mind and, whether you've yet experienced it or not, you don't have a normal mind, you have an extraordinary one once you put it to use for your own ends. What ends might they be? Well, perhaps living your life to the full might be an end worth pursuing... you're going to have to take Option #2!!
We're picking up on last week's episode where I almost casually made four really important points... when you're using you mind in an ordinary way: You have no idea what's going on You haven't a clue what you should be doing or how to do it You don't know who you are and You don't know what you really want to achieve
Sounds weird - but it's the stuff of ordinary everyday life - because it is designed to be ordinary, to feel mundane. But your life is only ordinary because you're using your ordinary mind in an ordinary way. What if you started using your mind differently? If you could use your mind in an extra-ordinary way, your life would become extraordinary... as surely as night follows day. And the mundane? Listen and learn!!
You're surrounded by them, you may even be one of them and, if you are, you aren't even aware of it because... you're a Zombie! The alternative presents itself in every single moment of your life and, in each and every one of those single moments, you have a life-changing choice to make: am I going to turn up to my life and live it to the full in the here and now or am I going to continue, automatically, wandering around in a brain fog? You aren't going to change anything in your life - from health and fitness to weight or career - if you don't make the little life choices that we're exploring in this episode. But, when you do start making these tiny little everyday life choices, you will - and you can depend upon it - end up being presented with the kind of life-changing opportunities - and it will feel like it has just happened. What are we talking about? Listen and learn!!
Ah yes, one of the many excuses used by so-called normal crazy people to stay put in their not-so-comfortable comfort zone... I need to be realistic. Or, if I can put it the other way around, "I couldn't have that kind of life... that would be unrealistic!" But what is realistic if not something your normal mind thinks? And, from all our conversations, you already are aware of the constraints that normal thought imposes upon us. So, in this episode, we're exploring how to drop the preconceived notion of being realistic. We're looking at it from a practical everyday point of view because this approach has everyday practical application - from a business and career perspective, from a relationship, health, wealth, fitness, anything perspective... you name it, when you take this approach anything can happen and whatever happens will lead you in the right direction in your life. What exactly is the approach we're talking about? Well, it is effortless (that's a scientific fact) and simply involves turning up to your own life, free of those normal crazy thoughts, in the here and now.
Yes, in this session I'm going to tell you how to achieve all of the above... effortlessly. And, although I and pretty much all of my clients are actually experiencing fulfilment, happiness and success, this podcast episode is not based on someone else's experience that you may or may not be able to replicate... these small transformational steps I'm suggesting are based in the hard sciences of developmental and cognitive psychology, neuroscience and even cutting-edge quantum physics which, by the way, tells us how the world really works. How does this world really work? How can you find fulfilment happiness and success? By turning up to this wonderful world of ours by leaving the thoughts that have you stuck (or you think have you stuck) behind. Yes, you change your life by changing your mind, by physically changing the shape and functionality of the key parts of your brain - what I call the "being brain" and the "doing brain"... so utterly different from being poisoned by your thinking brain. And, in case you're really interested in living the life you'd really love to live, you might also be interested in knowing that you can start the process this very instant.
The answer to that question is, of course, "yes" - we're all in a "mood" all of the time until we take charge of what's going on between our own two ears. When you do, you're going to discover something so breathtakingly simple that you'll marvel at how easy it is to change your life... yes, that's what I said. Choosing to take charge is even simpler than it sounds: you don't try to change your mind, you don't have to start trying to think "happy thoughts" - none of that superfluous nonsense is required. All you do is... choose to turn up. Turn up to what? Turn up to the reality of the present moment. When you do that, you stop thinking (it is, as you'll discover, thinking that put you in the mood in the first place), you become present. And, when you become present, you have presence. And we all know what that means: people with presence are attractive, people love to be around people who have that indefinable extra. And, when you are present, your mood evaporates, stress evaporates and what you're left with is the reality of living your life your way here and now. And that certainly is life changing.
Do you realise how addicted and obsessed you are? Do you realise that it's normal? Do you understand that being normal is short-changing you in every single aspect of your life? In this episode, we're exploring the one thing that poisons everyday life - the root of all evil. Do you know what that is? You'll have to listen in!! But... actually this episode is really about being present and attractive - it's about becoming a magnet - it's about how to attract into your life everything that you need to live the life you'd love to live. So, in actual fact, this episode could have a completely different title... The Joy Magnet. One more thing: click on Links below the podcast player to get details of my never-to-be-repeated Special Offer for lifetime access to my Online Program, The Psychology of Success.
Life and how you live it, work and how you do it... it's all about the attitude that you bring to the party. If you hate your job, you'll make it so much more difficult for you to do it, simply confirming that you were right to hate your job in the first place. Why would you set yourself off on such a vicious, thought-fuelled, circle? Why not get off the sorry-go-'round and hop on life's merry-go-'round? Obviously, I'm not talking about being positive instead of negative - I'm talking about being in the only state of mind worth being in: one that has fully turned up to your life in the here and now, perceived warts and all. There are no lines between life and work, other than those we create. In creating them, we needlessly create the stress that drags us down, burns us out. It's time to bring a different attitude to the party, the party of life.
There are two key learnings in this episode - phrases we throw away in everyday life - phrases that developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and modern neuroscience suggest that we should contemplate more deeply. Or, actually, understand their life-changing significance... "It's never too late" and "there's no time like the present". Actually, as you listen, you'll begin to realise that there is just one key learning: You need to be. How do you be?!?!? Well, tune in and let your (conceptual) self go. One more thing - there are a couple of important links below this episode: the first provides you with immediate access to my all-new free training program, the second will enable you explore The Psychology of Success Online Program - watch out over the coming days for a once-in-a-lifetime offer for lifetime access to this.
So much is explored in this episode - but not what you think! At the outset, I talk about how what we feel, what "occurs" to us, is so much more important than what we think, how our gut instinct will look after everything for us, if only we'd let it. We explore flow and the exhilaration of living life to the full. We talk about the joy of being in flow... everyday. And we talk about your wealth... your health is your wealth. You need to look after your body. And, like everything else in life, there's nothing complicated to do - no regimes to which you have to subject yourself... not even a diet! There's only thing you need to do: look after your state of mind. A mind that is ill at ease creates dis-ease in our bodies. A mind that is clear, calm, focused, present, exhilarated and flowing enables our bodies simply flow too...
Do you trust yourself to make the right choices or decisions? How about other people, do you trust them to do what they say they'll do? Or, to put it bluntly, how can you trust a normal crazy person? When we use or minds normally we think things through using a preprogrammed patterned way of repetitive thinking (that we've been using since our childhood) to "enable" us come to the right decision. As a result, the chances of us making the right decision or a decision different from a wrong decision we had made in previous similar circumstances... very very slim indeed. What you need to do is just let your non-thinking mind do what it does best... what you need to do is just let go and trust the real you. Why did you think that was what this podcast is called? 🤗
Normally (and that's a bad word!) we are expert at taking steps in the wrong direction. For starters, we're very good at wasting time and energy doing meaningless stuff. But, when we're using our minds normally, it's much worse than that - we actually do wrong things, react in ways that make things worse, not better. And, even worse than that, we stop ourselves achieving what we want to achieve and, in the process, confirm to ourselves that it's quite likely we'll never achieve them. But what you need to realise right now is... there's only one step that you need to take in the right direction. Meditation enables everything else. Everything flows from the present state of mind that meditation enables you develop. You stop reacting and start acting. You start doing the right things and you start doing them effortlessly. And, in doing so, you let yourself lead yourself effortlessly towards the kind of life you'd love to live - starting in the only place and time you can... the here and now.
Yes. I said banish - not manage or find some stress relief. It takes just one simple step and that step has been staring you in the face, hiding in full view, since the 1980s (and actually a couple of thousand years). And you don't just need to rid your life of stress so that you can be a bit happier. When you choose to be stressed (yes, it is a choice you make), you damage your physical health in at least five different ways and... shorten your life. And, yet, as I said, stress is a choice. Yes - you do it to yourself. It has nothing to do with what's going on in your life and everything to do with what you think about what's going on in your life. So, listen in and wise up - take this one step and banish stress. Oh and by the way, banishing stress opens up your mind to whole new vista of what your life could really be... your life, your way.
We control but one thing in our lives - our state of mind. Funny then that most people (they're normal, they're just a little crazy!) fret about not being in control of everything and everyone else in their lives over which they have no control! But - and this is a really important but - when you do take control of your own state of mind, you greatly enhance your ability to influence everyone and everything around you. So, what's the best state of mind to be in? Is a positive state of mind better than a negative one? Does positive thinking work? Well the last question can be answered really quickly: positive thinking is just more thinking - of course it doesn't work. There's only one state of mind worth being in... a present state of mind. When you're present, you have presence and, when you have presence, you make and leave just the right kind of impression on those around you. You are the most important person in your life - you need to take responsibility for yourself and your state of mind now. When you do, everything changes and changes utterly.
We're great at telling stories - in ancient times that was how knowledge was passed down the generations. But that is not what this episode is about! It's about how great we are at telling stories about ourselves... and believing them! These stories create the masks that enable us flexibly move through our everyday lives - or do they? Because they only make our lives more difficult by further distancing us from an experience of the reality of the moment, the here and now where real life is actually happening. If real life is happening now, the real you had better turn up. But this is where the biggest mask of all stops us in our tracks. It's a mask we don't think of as a mask at all... we think it is really us. And that is what is holding you back - that is what is getting in your own way - who you think you are. This episode is about discovering who you really are. It is about engaging with and experiencing the real world in the here and now. It is about letting go of the thoughts that hold you back. It is about starting to live your life your way right now.
What's the difference between the humdrum of everyday life and being in the zone or, as the University of Chicago would have it, in Flow? The extra in extraordinary is simply down to turning up. You need to turn up to your life right here, right now. And that requires training: meditation is the training. Meditation develops mindfulness: that's the turning up. But turning up to what? Or, more to the point, turning up for what? What do you want out of life? What's your purpose? I would suggest that you neither need to have or no a grand purpose - you will discover it when you turn up to your life. Or, actually, it will manifest itself to you. That's why this podcast exhorts you to just let go - to get out of your own way - to let yourself flow simply doing what you've decided is best for you to do today, now.
Do you need a plan to get you to where you want to go? Do you know where you want to go?! How best can you move yourself forward in your life so that you experience the kind of life your heart really desires? Well, for starters, let's park your thinking mind - it only thinks it knows best. There's another part of you that you need to let out because, when you free it up, it simply and effortlessly enables you do just what you need to do moment to moment, no plan required. Does this sound counter-intuitive? It's the exact opposite - it is your intuition that you need to free up - it is, in fact, quite simply counter common sense. But then, as you'll know when you consider how the normal mind works, those two words don't even go together... there's no such thing as common sense! So, sit back or get out on your walk and stay with me for half an hour and you'll understand exactly what you need to do and... you'll start doing it straight away, right here, right now.
I bet you nobody has ever suggested to you that you do less! Here, I'm suggesting that you do nothing. In this episode, we explore how letting your mind settle, how allowing the so-called Gap occur, will enable you deepen your experience of you and the moment. And, seeing as how you need you to fully turn up to the moment, each moment, doing nothing is, for starters, one of the most practical trainings you'll ever do. But that's just for starters because, when your mind does settle, you'll begin to realise that you have nothing to learn, only un-learn. You'll begin to understand who you are, what you are and what you need to do next. Doing nothing represents something of a leap on the adventure that is this life of your's.
Your thoughts have bewitched you and you've been under their spell since you were twelve or thirteen. You've been "living" in a trance state... couldn't really call it living at all, actually. This trance state is a "can't do" state of mind so, regardless of the fact that you know there are things you must do to achieve what you want or live the kind of life you want, you can't do them! To quote Henry Ford: If you think you can't do a thing, you're right. And, if you think you can do a thing, you're right. You need to change how you think. Once you do, you liberate your doing brain - liberating it to do its thing... enabling you do what you need to do to get to where you want to go, enabling you embrace opportunity freely, enabling you create opportunity effortlessly. Start today, start right now... just let go.
You've got a choice to make and you need to make that choice... now. The choice is one between life and death - the life you're supposed to be living or the existence that the normal thinking mind creates for you. The choice is binary: mindfulness or mindlessness. Mindfulness is not a "nice to have" - if you want to change anything in your life you've got to be mindful - because the normal thinking mindless mind is designed to keep you where you are, inside your comfort zone, regardless of how uncomfortable that might actually be. And mindfulness is not about being all calm and Zen (well it is but that's only the start of it) - it's the difference between experiencing the joy of living, the joy of you and... the same old, same old. So, you've a choice to make now and now and now. Because you need not just to wake up from the trance state in which your thoughts have you, you need to stay awake.
You are the most important person in your life - you need to look after your Self. Yes, I don't mean look after who you think you are - I mean your real Self - the wonderful you full of all that potential. So, we're not talking about being selfish - although we are talking about pampering yourself! We're not talking about boosting your self-esteem or enhancing your self-confidence - they are all about making who you think you are feel better about... who you think you are! We're talking about state of mind - the only state of mind worth being in... calm, clear, focused, present, here, now. So pamper yourself - give yourself the luxury of half an hour to re-mind yourself of the primary importance of you.
This is a practical "how to" episode designed to help you further develop and enhance the regular practice that we all need to do to enable ourselves make the all-important moment-to-moment choice of turning up to our own lives so that we can live them to the full. We're talking about morning routines, during-the-day mini-meditation, meditating with others and how that makes for effortlessly amazing teams at work and, even more importantly, great personal relationships. And, now that we're talking about meditation, you should really tune in to the free training session that I'm running at the moment on the "how tos" of meditation and the enormous benefits to mind, body and spirit: https://tinyurl.com/28fx44zh
Yes, the title of today's session says it all. And it's all awfully simple. Today we're talking about intentional mindfulness or purposeful mindfulness... turning up to your life with your intentions in mind. What might those intentions be? Well, you might want to lose weight - if you look at Program Owner's Reviews on my website, you'll see that the very first one talks about losing "45lbs to become fit and healthy". You might want a new job or career or a new or improved relationship. Or you might want to play better golf or tennis!! The point is, you can have everything you want when you shoot yourself - every single day - with The Silver Bullet.
Now, there's plenty that we're covering in this week's episode - but it all boils down to using your mind in an abnormal manner. Purely and simply, we make life awfully difficult for ourselves by pouring our mental energy into the things that stop us from being focused enough and present enough to do just what we need to do... and forget the rest. How much more effortless would life be if you could graciously and simply say "No" when it is the appropriate response? How much better would be at doing what we're doing if we stopped worrying about what other people think of us (when they don't!)? And how much more would money flow when we unblock the damn created by our own thoughts about trying to make money? Time for a little effortless success... or a lot. Oh... you might also be interested in finding out how you're blocking your own happiness and success: https://www.willie-horton.com/MMI/fb.php?id=3-2
The title of this week's episode may well sound dramatic... because what we're talking about is. Our live's can "change on a sixpence" and, in quantum reality, do. That's why the most important choice in your life is the one you make now. For starters, only now can you decide or choose anything. You only are now. You can only be now, only do now. And the choice you make now sets up the next now and... so on. Now, if that's what this week's episode is really about, why do I start by talking about so-called Normal Crazy People?
The land of thought is a foreign land indeed... so very far removed from the world in which we actually stand, surrounded by opportunity. Far removed the normal mind may well be from the here and now - but it's only a single simple step from there to here - the real here - no passport required, no vaccination, no need to move at all... the real here is here and now. And you can make that choice any time - take that step that changes your life whenever - and it doesn't matter what went before - what matters is what you do now because, when you do turn up to here and now, the next now and all the nows to come will be so excitingly different. Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime... your's.
Stress is a choice - that means we can choose not to be stressed. And resilience is something too many people are overly proud of when you consider that it often means coping with something with which you shouldn't have ever put up with in the first place! Yes, our minds play tricks on us - the cruelest of all being the automated choice we make to slowly kill ourselves through curse of everyday low-level background stress - the stress that the WHO says is causing a "pandemic of hypertension". And, as for resilience... why would you train yourself to put up with something that you shouldn't put up with at all? You have a secret weapon at your disposal to deal with all of this - but it's only the tricks that your own mind plays on you that keeps it hidden in plain view.
All too often, we think that whatever we know we need to do to get to where we want to go would be a bridge too far for us... would require the kind of backbone that, somewhere deep down, we suspect we don't have. Or, more to the point, expect we couldn't do! We look on in some kind of awe at people being the kind of brave and courageous that we'd love to being, knowing that we can't. Well, I've news for you... yes you can! And, in this episode, I tell you exactly how to let yourself go, throw so-called caution to the wind and start effortlessly (yes, you read that right!) doing what you need to do to change your life. Yes You Can.
Do you not like your boss? Do you hate your job? Are you stuck in a dysfunctional relationship? Do you feel there's no way out? Are you afraid of doing what you need to do to bring about change in your life? Well, the fear you're feeling is just the fear you're thinking. The challenges with which you're confronted are magnified by what you think about them. And the solution to all your problems requires neither bravery or courage on your part. It requires just a little something that will completely change your life.
What kind of fool would think about the unthinkable, judge the unjudgable, evaluate the unevaluatable? Meditation is practiced to enable us stop thinking, stop judging, stop evaluating and, in the process, free ourselves from the thoughts that facilitate the process of how we, ever so negatively, judge ourselves. What kind of fool wouldn't bring the clear mind that the have developed through their regular practice of meditation to the cut and thrust of everyday life? Meditation is practiced to enable us be in and experience flow during the highs and lows, peaks and troughs, rough and tumble of everyday life... that's when it really makes the difference. In this episode, we roll our sleeves up and get practical on the whats, hows and whys of meditation.
You have a thinking mind - it will "enable" you trudge your way through today. And you have a doing mind - it will enable you do just what you need to do with the least possible effort to enable you dance your way through today on the journey of a lifetime... your's. In this episode, I explore what happens when you let your doing mind do what it does best. We're talking about things "occurring" to you and "Aha Moments". We're talking about spontaneity and being the right person in the right place at the right time. We're talking about how to recognise opportunity and how to behave in a way that enables you create opportunity. And the great thing is that all this comes naturally... when you just let go.
Do you love yourself... unconditionally? Or, like most people, would you like to be more self-confident? Do you "suffer" from low self-esteem? Or, like few abnormal people, do you know the power within? How do you become acquainted with that power within? How do you meet the real you? You already know that there is something "more" within - because we all have seen flashes of our true capability... in a crisis, under pressure or simply when a little voice says "do this" or "don't do that". There is a passionate power within simply waiting to make an appearance in your life - and, when she or he does, your life will never be the same again.
Generally speaking, how we think falls into three buckets - the 70k repetitive thoughts that enable us make it through each day; the specialist knowledge or skills we bring to what we do "for a living" and - most importantly - the third way. Picasso called it inspiration, Edison knew exactly how to tap it, you've got it within, in this episode we explore how you can let it loose... and it will change your life. Imagine you didn't have to wait for an accidental "Aha Moment". Imagine if inspiration didn't have to wait to strike you "Out of the Blue". Imagine if you could tune in so that your inspiration and creativity were available to you on tap in, what the University of Chicago calls, Flow. Imagine no more. In this episode you'll learn how to do it.
You might think you know what this episode is about and you might just be wide of the mark! What's the problem with positive thinking? What about the power of positive thinking? What about your own inner power? What about leaving the shadowlands of thought behind for the reality of the here and now for it is only in the here and now that you can be the best you that you can be and live the kind of life you'd love to live. That's what this episode is actually all about.
To some extent, we're all depressed. For starters, our own vital energy is suppressed by the impediment of ordinary everyday repetitive thought... our own thoughts disable us. The efficiency of our cardio-vascular, digestive and immune systems is depressed by the hormones triggered by those everyday repetitive thoughts. And we "live" on autopilot - a shadow of who we really are. Who are you really? Well, if you reflect upon the noise in your own head, you'll realise there are two of you: you and the conceptual you. Which one do you think is real?
We constantly create and recreate our own lives - this is a fact of cognitive psychology, not some fanciful concept. When we use our minds normally, we constantly recreate the same life - that's why we find it so difficult to change our lives or any aspect of them - that's a fact of cognitive psychology too. To change, we need to make a choice: it's a binary choice between action or reaction, a binary choice between mindfulness and mindlessness. Automatically - yes, psychology actually explains that our lives are daily created on autopilot - we are mindless. That's why mindfulness is not a "nice to have" but a necessity... assuming you want to live the life you'd dearly love.
On autopilot, the normal mind is so divorced from the reality of the moment that it could very easily be said that, normally, we are demented... "living" a half-life. The solution is horribly simple: turn off the autopilot! This is what we do when we meditate. But, very often, the more we engage our minds through meditation, the noisier our minds become. Of course, that is not true - it's just that we become more aware of how noisy our mind was in the first place. And that is a very good thing - that awareness is a major leap forward in understanding how we can live our lives to the full.
What we do in life echoes in eternity. OK - it's a quote from Gladiator but it emphasises a key point... when we talk about the so-called Law of Attraction... it's all about Attr-ACTION! We've got to do what we've got to do, moment-to-moment, to get to where we want to go in life. And the first thing we must do, before we can even attempt to do anything else, is turn up to your own life: here and now.
I'm always talking about the two-piece jigsaw - how all we need to do to live our lives to the full is (1) turn up to the here and now and (2) know why we've turned up (our "purpose") Like any jigsaw, these two pieces interlock... that's what this episode is about. As such, it is - in two simple steps - the recipe for living your best life.
Believing is seeing. There's a whole science behind visualisation and manifestation - but those two, often misunderstood, words conceal a multitude. But let's keep things simple - that multitude all boils down to one word: action. But what kind of action? How will my actions be any different than before? This week's episode explains the nuts and bolts of how both visualisation and manifestation actually work in your day-to-day life. And you'll learn how to get the ball rolling.
Even when our gut instinct tells us exactly what we need to do, we can still be confronted with a major barrier... and it's a real neural barrier - not just a product of how we think. Very often, to get what we want, we've got to do things that we know we're not up to - or we've to do something that makes us feel uncomfortable. And, as a result, we end up sitting pretty in our comfort zone, regardless of how uncomfortable it might be. Well, we need to escape. And, in this episode, I explain exactly how to set yourself free.
We all have it. It's talking to us all the time. But we simply cannot hear. We can't hear above the noise of our own overthinking - the noise in our own head. And, yet, our gut instinct has all the answers - even to questions that we don't know we have. So we need to make contact - get in touch - tune in.
Coincidence, whim, spontaneity, gut instinct... all phrases that you might not associate with being fully focussed. Of course, that would be simply because we normally don't understand what proper focus us! So, in this episode we explore some - not all, it's going to take a few episodes! - of the places you will discover some of the most importance signposts that you need to follow on the route to living the kind of life you'd love. Some signposts are external - like the coincidences we've been exploring. Some are internal - like gut instinct. And none of them comes from your thinking mind! So, buckle up as we continue our journey into the wonderful world of how the wonderful world really works.
I'm always banging on about developing our ability to be present. If you're not present, how are you going to know and understand what's going on? All too often in life, opportunities arise in the most unexpected of ways. And, seeing as how we know that the thinking mind can only perceive the expected, how are you going to perceive those unexpected coincidences and opportunities that lead us forward? Short answer... you won't - unless you turn up to the here and now. It's in the here and now that the magic of living life to the full happens. In fact, it's only in the here and now that this can happen.
We regularly throw around words like focus, expect or belief - without having an understanding of what they mean, what they mean in our life and, even more importantly, what they mean in relation to the kind of life we want to live... indeed we use the word "want" without realising that it has no meaning at all to the part of our mind that will enable us achieve those wants! We need to strip away our disbelief, strip ourselves down to the fundamentals of who we are (not who we think we are) in the moment and start seeing what is really going on. Only then can we begin to truly see what's possible. And, once you begin to see that for yourself, in your own life, you will begin to understand that, in your life, anything is possible. All you have to do is see it because... seeing is believing.
Surprise, surprise! Normally when someone says to you "Be realistic!" it's a put-down. Normal ideas of what we can achieve place constraints upon us. The thinking mind thinks it knows what is and isn't realistic - but it's your doing mind that will get you to where you want to go in life. *These are all bad words!
When my clients learn that they can set their mind in a scientifically-proven way to achieve their goals and objectives... they started rushing off at high-speed thinking that they know what they really, really want. But there is no way in the world that normal thinking could enable us understand what our heart desires... after all normal thinking is, day-in-day-out, the same normal thinking that keeps us going 'round in circles. You will never figure out what you want. Instead, you need to let yourself have those Aha Moments that will lead your life in the best possible direction.
When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, from the thoughts that bind, the baggage that weighs us down, a fundamental shift takes place. Someone beyond your so-called Conceptual Self emerges. And you don't have to go seeking - it will find you - and it will change how you live your life, for starters, by enabling you turn up to your own life in the here and now. But that's just for starters!
Ordinarily, the present is contaminated by the past - specifically the thought programs that enable us make it through the now without experiencing it... really. We need to clear our mind and come into the here and now - it is the way in which we allow our baggage stop getting in our way. But that begs a question about our so-called baggage doesn't it!
Yes, the title of this Episode neatly sums up how the normal mind makes sense of real reality, using a process known as cognitive appraisal. In this Episode, I explain exactly how this process works and how, in the process, we "live" a number of steps removed from reality - with all the attendant consequences. For, if you don't know what's going on, how do you know what you should be doing (or not doing) right here and now?
Our thoughts provide us with our flawed understanding what is going on. Consequently, we automatically react to what we think is happening. This dictates our behaviour and how we interact with others. Our thoughts therefore create our reality. In this episode we explore the three types of ordinary everyday looped though programs: the helpful (the ones that enable us make it through the day); the distractions (if there's nothing available to distract us, we're very good at doing it ourselves); and the toxic... And it is these toxic thoughts that poison our experience of life and, in particular, how we think about ourselves. But this is an uplifting episode - the real action (and how we can liberate ourselves from our toxic thoughts) comes right at the end.
Most people don't know what they want... they just think they do. And that's normal because, in fact, every thing we do, fail to do, plan and wish for is filtered through thought - it's simply how we're wired. The real issue is the type of thinking we employ to figure out what our goals and objectives are. That's the first thing we're exploring in this episode. More importantly, we're exploring how to define what success means to you... and how not to define it! In the end, we need to ensure that we have a clear perspective on what is truly important to us, what turns us on. Armed with that clear perspective, we can achieve the kind of goals that the normal mind could never even begin to imagine.
Attention on its own is being present in the moment with no direction... you'll end up being happy whilst you go around in circles. Intention on its own is nothing more than wishful thinking. But put attention and intention together and you have the combination that will enable you effortlessly achieve the kind of happiness and success beyond the wildest imagination of the normal automated mind.
It doesn't come naturally - we're actually designed to pay attention to almost nothing! And, yet, your happiness and success, even your life depends on you being able to give it your undivided attention. The curious thing is that, even though (as apparently responsible adults) paying attention doesn't come naturally, it is our natural state of mind... that would be natural before we became so clouded or even overwhelmed by our own thought. So, this episode explores the key issues (we always need to understand them because they provide us with our why) and, more importantly... what we can do to do what it takes to live life to the full.
Regardless of how well you develop your ability to calm and focused, everyday life throws challenges (small, medium, large and existential) at you... but it is the development of that very calm and focus that enables us meet those challenges and do what is necessary - in a calm and focused way. That's so different from the way in which the normal mind (operating on Autopilot) reacts to what we think is going (it's actually worse than that as you'll learn)... but, in the end, what that means is that the only real challenge in life involves taking control of your own state of mind. Rise to that challenge and everything else will be relatively plain sailing.
And worry is so much more than a waste! What do we miss out on while we're worrying? What does worry do to our perspective on life... or the kind of life we'd love to have? And, most importantly, what can we do to let go of worry? If I had a Euro, Dollar or Pound for every time I had a conversation with a client (one-to-one, on Facebook Live or Zoom) I could simply spend every day up those beautiful Alps! But, then again, they talk to me because I know how anyone and everyone - and that includes you - can banish worry for their lives. And it's easier than you think (so there's no need to worry about it!).
To succeed, to be happy and successful, we need to let go of all the things that hold us back. Unfortunately, that presents the "normal" mind with an insurmountable challenge... But it's only insurmountable while you're using your normal mind, well, normally. So, in this very first episode, we're going to dive straight into how we can start using our ordinary mind in an extra-ordinary way. And, believe it or not, the "extra" is really quite simple... and life-changing.